Calls for Papers

Organized by Paul C. Adams

1. Captain America's Empire: Reflections on Identity, Popular Culture, and Post-9/11 Geopolitics

Jason Dittmer, Department of Geology and Geography, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA

This paper introduces comic books as a medium through which national identity and geopolitical scripts are narrated. This extension of the popular geopolitics literature uses the example of post-11 September 2001 "Captain America" comics books to integrate various strands of theory from political geography and the study of nationalism to break new ground in the study of popular culture, identity, and geopolitics. The paper begins with an introduction to the character of Captain America and a discussion of the role he plays in the rescaling of American identity and the institutionalization of the nation's symbolic space. The paper continues by showing how visual representations of American landscapes in "Captain America" were critical to constructing geopolitical "realities." Following this, a reading of post-9/11 issues of the "Captain America" comic book reveals a nuanced and ultimately ambiguous geopolitical script that interrogates America's post-9/11 territorialization.

2. Elián González and the Geopolitics of Home

Bruce D'Arcus, Miami University, Oxford, OH

Popular discourses of globalization emphasize the fluidity of space and dissolution of borders that characterize the contemporary world. Contemporary media greatly contributes to these discourses of the borderless character contemporary space. Yet it can equally be argued that in many cases globalization has served to harden the boundaries that define political territories and identities. This paper examines the boundary politics surrounding the case of Elián González, the young Cuban immigrant who opened up an international custody battle in 1999 and 2000 that threw into sharp relief lingering Cold War discourses that divide contemporary Cuban nationhood. In particular, I examine how the international dimensions of the conflict intersected around a micro-politics of the spaces of the Little Miami home where the child stayed for the duration of his stay in Florida.

3. Jenin Brought Home: The Politics of Representation and Reception

Reecia Orzeck, SyracuseUniversity, Syracuse, NY

This paper brings together questions about the representation and the visual reception of geopolitical conflict. I begin by considering some of the dissimilar representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the start of the second intifada. In particular, I consider how the violence that took place in Jenin in 2002 has been represented in documentary films, and, to a lesser extent, on television and in the print media. I ask: how are strategies of omission and inclusion employed in these documentaries?; what other visual or narrative strategies are employed, to what effect? I conclude this part of the paper by evaluating critical geopolitics' and feminist geopolitics' theorizations of the anti-geopolitical eye and the embodied, feminist geopolitical eye respectively) in light of the Jenin case. In the second part of my paper, I engage with the literature, both within and beyond geography, that addresses the politics of visual reception of geopolitical conflict. Here I make use of Susan Sontag's Regarding the Pain of Others, as well as other works on ethics, violence, and the visual, in order to make sense of popular indifference to spatially remote geopolitical violence. I conclude with some thoughts on what the discipline of geography might further contribute to both the literature on geopolitical representation and that on reception.

4. The 2004 presidential election: European media and the geopolitics of a global event

Virginie Mamadouh, Dept of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The election of the president of the United States is an event of global importance, widely acknowledged in the news media across the world. While only registered US electors can cast a vote, many people in the rest of the world feel concerned with the outcome of the election because US policies directly affect their lives. In that process, US presidential elections are reconstructed as a global event, challenging conventional meanings of national sovereignty. This paper addresses representations of the 2004 election in European media and analyses them in light of national geopolitical visions. The research investigates quality newspapers from several member states of the European Union, including France, Germany and the UK. Because it is limited by availability in the LexisNexis archive, it focuses on text. The analysis pertains to quantitative and qualitative aspects. The amount of attention devoted to the election is compared, as well as the topics addressed. Of prime importance are the representation of the candidates and their views on US foreign policy, the representation of US democracy, and the representation of the presidential election as a global event. Similarities and differences between these European states are analyzed in light of differences in popular and practical geopolitics, as expressed by government policies and public opinions regarding national and European foreign policies and the global role of the USA (especially the US War on Terror and Operation Iraqi Freedom).

5. French Visions of Europe and the United States: Imagining a “Euro-Puissance”

Paul C. Adams, Department of Geography, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

The US is now the reference point of geopolitical discussions around the world, an Other that helps non-Americans make sense of who they are as citizens and individuals. This preoccupation must be analyzed because the nation is an ongoing work of the imagination, and the ways in which various nations represent the US will ultimately affect geopolitical options for the US. Analysis should be directed in particular towards the main purveyors of public discourses, the “opinion leaders” of countries, and the popular media that provide them with a public forum. This paper examines French discourses, revealing the intersection of nationalism, conceptions of Europe, and representations of the US. French opinion leaders and gatekeepers are shown to have responded to US nationalism by temporarily subsuming their own nationalist impulses within an emerging rhetoric of “Euro-puissance” that entails a solidification of European political and military power. In general, opinion leaders voice more or less nationalist views, so the current French enthusiasm for a stronger Europe is a rare and significant development in European geopolitics.


	2005 AAG Communication Geography Specialty Group Sponsored Session “Geopolitics, Globalization and the Representation of Place”
	Organized by Paul C. Adams 1. Captain America's Empire: Reflections on Identity, Popular Culture, and Post-9/11 Geopolitics Jason Dittmer, Department of Geology and Geography, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA This paper introduces comic books as a medium through which national identity and geopolitical scripts are narrated. This extension of the popular geopolitics literature uses the example of post-11 September 2001 "Captain America" comics books to integrate various strands of theory from political geography and the study of nationalism to break new ground in the study of popular culture, identity, and geopolitics. The paper begins with an introduction to the character of Captain America and a discussion of the role he plays in the rescaling of American identity and the institutionalization of the nation's symbolic space. The paper continues by showing how visual representations of American landscapes in "Captain America" were critical to constructing geopolitical "realities." Following this, a reading of post-9/11 issues of the "Captain America" comic book reveals a nuanced and ultimately ambiguous geopolitical script that interrogates America's post-9/11 territorialization. 2. Elián González and the Geopolitics of Home Bruce D'Arcus, Miami University, Oxford, OH Popular discourses of globalization emphasize the fluidity of space and dissolution of borders that characterize the contemporary world. Contemporary media greatly contributes to these discourses of the borderless character contemporary space. Yet it can equally be argued that in many cases globalization has served to harden the boundaries that define political territories and identities. This paper examines the boundary politics surrounding the case of Elián González, the young Cuban immigrant who opened up an international custody battle in 1999 and 2000 that threw into sharp relief lingering Cold War discourses that divide contemporary Cuban nationhood. In particular, I examine how the international dimensions of the conflict intersected around a micro-politics of the spaces of the Little Miami home where the child stayed for the duration of his stay in Florida. 3. Jenin Brought Home: The Politics of Representation and Reception Reecia Orzeck, SyracuseUniversity, Syracuse, NY This paper brings together questions about the representation and the visual reception of geopolitical conflict. I begin by considering some of the dissimilar representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the start of the second intifada. In particular, I consider how the violence that took place in Jenin in 2002 has been represented in documentary films, and, to a lesser extent, on television and in the print media. I ask: how are strategies of omission and inclusion employed in these documentaries?; what other visual or narrative strategies are employed, to what effect? I conclude this part of the paper by evaluating critical geopolitics' and feminist geopolitics' theorizations of the anti-geopolitical eye and the embodied, feminist geopolitical eye respectively) in light of the Jenin case. In the second part of my paper, I engage with the literature, both within and beyond geography, that addresses the politics of visual reception of geopolitical conflict. Here I make use of Susan Sontag's Regarding the Pain of Others, as well as other works on ethics, violence, and the visual, in order to make sense of popular indifference to spatially remote geopolitical violence. I conclude with some thoughts on what the discipline of geography might further contribute to both the literature on geopolitical representation and that on reception. 4. The 2004 presidential election: European media and the geopolitics of a global event Virginie Mamadouh, Dept of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands The election of the president of the United States is an event of global importance, widely acknowledged in the news media across the world. While only registered US electors can cast a vote, many people in the rest of the world feel concerned with the outcome of the election because US policies directly affect their lives. In that process, US presidential elections are reconstructed as a global event, challenging conventional meanings of national sovereignty. This paper addresses representations of the 2004 election in European media and analyses them in light of national geopolitical visions. The research investigates quality newspapers from several member states of the European Union, including France, Germany and the UK. Because it is limited by availability in the LexisNexis archive, it focuses on text. The analysis pertains to quantitative and qualitative aspects. The amount of attention devoted to the election is compared, as well as the topics addressed. Of prime importance are the representation of the candidates and their views on US foreign policy, the representation of US democracy, and the representation of the presidential election as a global event. Similarities and differences between these European states are analyzed in light of differences in popular and practical geopolitics, as expressed by government policies and public opinions regarding national and European foreign policies and the global role of the USA (especially the US War on Terror and Operation Iraqi Freedom). 5. French Visions of Europe and the United States: Imagining a “Euro-Puissance” Paul C. Adams, Department of Geography, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX The US is now the reference point of geopolitical discussions around the world, an Other that helps non-Americans make sense of who they are as citizens and individuals. This preoccupation must be analyzed because the nation is an ongoing work of the imagination, and the ways in which various nations represent the US will ultimately affect geopolitical options for the US. Analysis should be directed in particular towards the main purveyors of public discourses, the “opinion leaders” of countries, and the popular media that provide them with a public forum. This paper examines French discourses, revealing the intersection of nationalism, conceptions of Europe, and representations of the US. French opinion leaders and gatekeepers are shown to have responded to US nationalism by temporarily subsuming their own nationalist impulses within an emerging rhetoric of “Euro-puissance” that entails a solidification of European political and military power. In general, opinion leaders voice more or less nationalist views, so the current French enthusiasm for a stronger Europe is a rare and significant development in European geopolitics.
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2005 AAG Communication Geography Specialty Group Sponsored Session “Geopolitics, Globalization and the Representation of Place”