This text maps the epistemological linkages between Black bodies and geographies vis-à-vis understandings of defilement and contagion. My cartographical exercise is fueled by meditations on how ideas of inhabitability interface with conceptions of humanness in dominant epistemological and ontological productions of geo-racial knowledge and power. I follow this phenomenological juncture with regards to the hegemonic projects of purification and governmentality. As a concomitant to these inquiries, I unveil the slippages and incongruities in such narratives, focusing on alternative cartographical formulations. These inquiries are situated in and around Katrina and post-Katrina New Orleans. I draw upon the terror and violence of the deluge as a lens into the hegemonic task of classifying/knowing filth and purging/sublimating it. Specifically, I interrogate proposals for the demolition and redevelopment of much of the city's remaining public housing.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["Hurricane Katrina","Contagion","Purification"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"2008