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Violent Infrastructure: Ecologies of Decay and Displacement

Ariel and Desiree Class
Undergraduates in World Politics at Virginia Tech meet with Dr. Ariel Otruba at her exhibition, Violent Infrastructure: Ecologies of Decay and Displacement, at the Newman Library in October 2023. Photo credit: Ariel Otruba.

Title of Project: Violent Infrastructure: Ecologies of Decay and Displacement

Project Period (duration): 2021-current

Principle Investigator (PI): Ariel Otruba, Faculty Member at Arcadia University and Non-Resident Research Associate at VTIPG

Co-Investigators: Nino Dzotsenidze, Senior Research Analyst at California Center for Rural Policy at Cal Poly Humboldt; Mariam Orjonikidze, MA in Sociology and Anthropology at Ilia State University and Central European University; and Natia Kekenadze, PhD Student in Urban Studies at Tbilisi State University

Book Group: Dr. Ariel Otruba, Non-Resident Research Associate at VTIPG; Dr. Max Stephenson Jr., School of Public and International Affairs and Director, VTIPG; Dr. Yannis Stivachtis, Professor of Political Science and Jean Monnet Chair Director, Center for European & Transatlantic Studies (CEUTS) - A Jean Monnet Center of Excellence; Dr. Nino Dzotsenidze, Senior Research Analyst at California Center for Rural Policy at Cal Poly Humboldt; Dr. Neda Moayerian, Assistant Professor at University of Tehran School of Urban Planning and Non-Resident Research Associate at VTIPG; Lara Nagle, Community-Based Research Manager at VTIPG; Amin Farzaneh, Graduate Research Assistant at VTIPG and Ph.D. Student in Planning, Governance, & Globalization (PGG); and Dr. Lyusyena Kirakosyan, Non-Resident Senior Project Associate at VTIPG.

Funding Source(s): American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC) Junior Research and Research Fellowships

Key University Partners: Center for European Union and Transatlantic Studies; Newman Library; and the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies (CRMDS)

Description of Project: (1-2 paragraphs)

Violent Infrastructure: Ecologies of Decay and Displacement is the name of a traveling Photovoice exhibition based on a multi-year, feminist visual ethnography project led by Ariel Otruba. The research project examines the emotional impact of abject housing infrastructure conditions on internally displaced persons (IDPs) forced to flee the 1992-1993 Georgian-Abkhaz war. The study involved over thirty IDP participants, who lived in decaying state-owned collective centers in the former Soviet balneological spa resort of Tskaltubo, Republic of Georgia, for three decades. Ten of the research subjects from the study participated in Photovoice, which is an arts-based participatory method that involves marginalized groups in the research process through photography. Photographs taken by the research participants and their accompanying stories were analyzed to understand how housing quality had shaped IDPs’ sense of identity, dignity, personhood, agency, and futurity. During a period of unprecedented numbers of forcibly displaced people worldwide, this project aims to bring visibility to the slow violence of urban displacement and war's capacity to harm over an elongated time horizon. In doing so, it seeks to encourage a critical reimagining of more caring and just spatial futures for forcibly displaced populations in Georgia and beyond.

Project Outcomes:

The project resulted in a traveling Photovoice exhibition, an immersive multimedia installation, an accompanying book in English and Georgian (forthcoming), as well as photovoice methods workshops and many presentations in the US and in Georgia. The project was also used to develop a global field study course, “Geographies of Displacement in Georgia, for students in the International Peace and Conflict Resolution graduate program at Arcadia University (Glenside, Pennsylvania).

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