Infrastructures of Oppression: Mapping Racism in the Built Environment will feature research produced in the spring of 2022 in DIY Cartography, a graduate-level research seminar in NC State’s College of Design led by professors Tania Allen and Sara Queen. The seminar examines the history of racism in our built environment. The featured maps highlight the structural disparities of today overlaid with patterns of confederate memorial erection to expose a palimpsest of institutionalized racism.

As part of a public reckoning with the legacy of infrastructures that perpetuate racism across America, there have been loud calls for dismantling the 2,474 confederate memorials scattered across the landscape. Using data compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Allen and Queen mapped attributes of the memorials. They used GIS, RAWGraphs, Tableau and Adobe software to overlay memorial data with diverse measures of physical, societal, political and economic structures that manifest and support systemic racism and ongoing oppression with an aim to spark discussion and initiate change.

This event is part of GIS Week at NC State.

Complimentary coffee, tea and light refreshments from Anisette, a local business, will be available beginning at 9:15 a.m. in an adjacent space. To help increase the sustainability of this program, please bring your own coffee mug.