BP: What is your role at the Institute?

AO: I am a Non-Resident Research Associate. Beyond VTIPG, I teach graduate courses in the M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution program at Arcadia University in Glenside, PA.

BP: How would you describe your research and praxis?

AO: I am an interdisciplinary feminist scholar working at the crossroads of political geography and conflict resolution. My work attempts to bring emotional, gendered, and embodied insight to the study of critical geopolitics, border and migration studies, urban planning, more-than-human geographies, and political ecology. I recently learned the term “pracademic” and I think that idea describes my pursuit of generating new knowledge that contributes to more pragmatic and caring policy and people-centered approaches to peacemaking.

My research centers on the study of violence from a geographical perspective, focusing on the spatial processes, places, and environments that marginalize, exclude, and reduce humans and nonhumans to what Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has called "bare life". I’m especially interested in slow and infrastructural violences, which are more attritional, invisible, and difficult forms of harm and suffering. They are also more difficult to measure.

I work primarily in postsocialist Eurasia on the ethno-territorial conflicts that emerged with the collapse of the Soviet Union. I’ve being conducting fieldwork on conflict-affected communities in the Republic of Georgia for more than a decade. This has included investigating the impact of border security practices by Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) on local communities near the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) with South Ossetia and housing infrastructure conditions for such populations in that same region.

BP: What are some other projects with which you are engaged?

AO: During a period of unprecedented numbers of forcibly displaced people worldwide, my primary research interest focuses on questions of spatial justice and the right to adequate housing for forcibly displaced populations. I am the principal investigator for a multiyear visual ethnographic project that addresses a group of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were resettled in the city of Tskaltubo following the thirteen-month Abkhaz-Georgian war in 1992-1993. Many of these IDPs inhabited once luxurious, but now dilapidated Soviet sanitoria buildings for thirty years before being relocated to new settlements. The project investigates the emotional ecologies of their displacement experience by asking how housing infrastructure quality affects IDPs' sense of identity, dignity, personhood, agency, and sense of futurity, As part of this study, ten IDPs from Tskaltubo participated in a participatory action research method called photovoice, This approach uses photographs taken by study participants to help to confront community problems. Photographs from that effort comprise the traveling photovoice exhibition, Violent Infrastructure: Ecologies of Decay and Displacement. The exhibit has engaged a range of audiences in questions concerning research methods and ethics, urban planning, humanitarianism, refugee rights, and social and environmental justice.  

BP: How did you become affiliated with IPG?

AO: My relationship with IPG developed after Max Stephenson, Jr. invited me to share my traveling photovoice exhibition, Violent Infrastructure: Ecologies of Decay and Displacement, at Newman Library during fall 2023. This exhibition and my subsequent visit were hosted by VTIPG, the Center for European & Transatlantic Studies (CEUTS), the Center for Refugee & Migrant Studies (CRMDS), and the Community Change Collaborative. I’m now working with Max, Yannis Stivachtis, and several other scholars from VTIPG, CEUTS, and CRMDS on developing a co-edited book to serve as a companion to the exhibition. 

BP: What does a typical day look like for you?

AO: I work from home most days. With a cup of coffee, I spend the morning grading or doing course prep, having Zoom meetings, or doing research and writing. Around lunchtime, I take my Bernese Mountain Dog, Barley, for leisurely walk through the neighborhood or on the trail by our house. Afternoons are like the mornings unless I go to campus to teach. Otherwise, evenings are spent with my husband. This usually includes going for a run or a workout, a second walk with the dog, and dinner.

BP: What is one detail your job entails that might be surprising for others to know?

AO: When you study conflict and violence, it’s easy to feel hopeless. For a long time, I really grappled with the power imbalances of my privilege and positionality in the field. I also struggled to see how the data I was collecting would have any real impact. However, I’ve learned that my research process and field ethics are more important than the products of my studies. Giving my full time, attention, and body to empathetic listening represents an immense and potentially transformative act of care. The ostensibly simple act of listening to an individual’s story can accord a sense of humanity and dignity to that person (or indeed, to a group too) that has suffered or feels abandoned, invisible, or marginalized.  

BP: What inspires you to do the work you do? 

AO: Being uncomfortable and unsettled by the ethical dilemmas that I encounter in the field or in my everyday life has always inspired my work. Not wanting to be a bystander or indifferent to injustice and violence pushes me to pursue projects that seek social or environmental change.

BP: What's your advice to someone who would want to pursue your area of research or praxis?

AO: To borrow a phrase from the feminist scholar Donna Haraway, “stay with the trouble.” One thing I’ve learned from ecology is the importance of thinking about interconnectedness.  When you see yourself in relation to others, de-center yourself, listen empathetically, and practice intellectual humility, you open yourself up to new perspectives, unexpected collaborations, and the possibilities that come from imagining otherwise. 

BP: What is a potential area of research/grant in the future that you would like to study and/or work on?

AO: I would like to continue exploring the use of participatory methods and creative practices in the Geohumanities and to expand the social impact of my research addressing conflict-affected populations and their environments. For example, I’m interested in the possibilities that might come from adopting and engaging with new methods of visual storytelling, art, digital archives, and participatory mapping. 

BP: What are some things you like to do in your free time?

AO: In my free time, I like to seek new adventures, volunteer, travel, and spend time outdoors (e.g., hike, camp, kayak) with my husband and dog. Reading a cozy mystery, visiting a local brewery, and cooking something new also brings me joy. 

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