Intersectional Sensibilities and the Spatial Analyses of Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Ellen Churchill Semple

Abstract

Feminist geographies have long provided geographers with methodologies for dislodging hegemonic structures of knowledge production. Recently, feminist geographers have taken up the challenges posed by the theory of intersectionality to analyze questions of place, power, and difference. In this article, we advance this trajectory by arguing for an “intersectional sensibility” in feminist geography methodologies. To illustrate this approach, we elevate the work of investigative journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862–1931), who used qualitative and quantitative data to analyze the nature and severity of anti-Black violence in the United States. We place her work alongside that of Ellen Churchill Semple (1863–1932), a contemporary of Wells-Barnett, who promoted environmental determinism. We argue that Wells-Barnett’s research practices produced geographic knowledge that articulated a standpoint that revealed spatial relationships of power that undergirded oppression; disrupted spatial analyses arising from single-axis thinking; was concerned with ending geographies of violence and injustice; and contributed to unlearning prevailing geographical imaginaries. We offer a methodological intervention grounded in an intersectional sensibility for feminist geography as well as a demonstration of more inclusive disciplinary practices that expand thinking about methods and methodological accountability.

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