Mapping Race and Space: Reclaiming Spatial Imaginaries and Amplifying Community-Led Action in Baltimore 

Samantha Samuel-Nakka

Advisor: Amy L Best, PhD, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Committee Members: John Dale, Rashmi Sadana

Online Location,
July 22, 2025, 11:00 AM to 01:00 PM

Abstract:

Spatial imaginaries shape and give meaning to place, impacting the way spaces are represented, resourced and reinforced with symbolic and material power dynamics. Race and space have a dual relationship for social movements focused on racial justice. Spatial racism disenfranchises low-income minority communities through redlining, gentrification and urban renewal, which creates the environment for premature death in many forms. Conversely, space can also serve as a tool to build liberatory spatial imaginaries focused on community resilience. This research combines mixed research methods spanning urban sociology, human geography and intersectional feminist disciplines to unpack the paradoxical relationship between race and space and its impact on the Black Lives Matter movement. I examine space as a central resource for social movements to tell the story of spatial trauma, systemic and gendered violence and the place-based particularities that enabled the emergence of the Baltimore Uprising in 2015. I use a social justice orientation of space to deconstruct the impact of violent spatial imaginaries in order to reconstruct a more nuanced understanding of the localized community-led actions that reclaim and reimagine space in Baltimore at the city, community and individual level. While this dissertation is anchored in Baltimore as the field of study, the analysis and conclusions drawn from the research can be applied to other urban geographies.  
 
Please join us on Zoom:  https://to.gmu.edu/Samuel-NakkaDefense