Place, Imaginary, Identity: Place Ethnography in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

TLDR: Place ethnography as discussed by the authors is a methodological framework that blends ethnographic and historic research with a range of disciplinary techniques in order to study place, where place is defined as a describable location characterized by a shifting confluence of historical, material, political, cultural, economic, built, sensed and imagined qualities.

Abstract: “Place for me is the locus of desire,” writes Lucy Lippard in the opening to Lure of the Local (1997). This research project is about place. Two distinct sets of scholarship on place emerged in the 1970s and the 1990s. A third wave of place scholarship is evident today. Coming initially from geography and anthropology, the study of place is now ubiquitous across fields—in history, cultural studies, architecture, planning, health sciences, art and other disciplines. Despite the sustained interest in the study of place, one of the hallmarks of place is the ranging and contested contours of what place means. Place is defined, for the purposes of this study, as a describable location characterized by a shifting confluence of historical, material, political, cultural, economic, built, sensed and imagined qualities. There are three distinct goals in this research project. First, this research project seeks to explore how place has been theorized, imagined, and understood. Second, this research project is an inquiry into how place can be studied. To these ends, I name, define, and refine a method I call place ethnography. Place ethnography is a methodological framework that blends ethnographic and historic research with a range of disciplinary techniques in order to study place. I develop several concepts in this project. These include the idea of a place imaginary, defined as a dominant place perception, the

Full text

University of New Mexico
UNM Digital Repository
,%1)#!-34$)%22 +%#31.-)#9%2%2!-$)22%13!3).-2

Place, Imaginary, Identity: Place Ethnography in
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Tita Berger
.++.53()2!-$!$$)3).-!+5.1*2!3
(:/2$)')3!+1%/.2)3.174-,%$4!,23 %3$2
9)2)22%13!3).-)2"1.4'(33.7.4&.1&1%%!-$./%-!##%22"73(%+%#31.-)#9%2%2!-$)22%13!3).-2!3)')3!+%/.2)3.173(!2"%%-
!##%/3%$&.1)-#+42).-)-,%1)#!-34$)%22"7!-!43(.1)8%$!$,)-)231!3.1.&)')3!+%/.2)3.17.1,.1%)-&.1,!3).-/+%!2%#.-3!#3
$)2#4-,%$4
%#.,,%-$%$)3!3).-
%1'%1)3!+!#%,!')-!17$%-3)37+!#%3(-.'1!/(7)-143(.1.-2%04%-#%2%5%6)#.
(:/2$)')3!+1%/.2)3.174-,%$4!,23 %3$2

Tita Berger
Candidate
Department of American Studies
Department
This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication:
Approved by the Dissertation Committee:
Dr. Gabriel Meléndez, Chairperson
Christopher Montgomery Wilson
Miguel Gandert
Dr. Michael Trujillo

ii
PLACE, IMAGINARY, IDENTITY:
PLACE ETHNOGRAPHY IN
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, NEW MEXICO
by
TITA BERGER
B.A., Government, New Mexico State University, 1994
M.A., Government, New Mexico State University, 2001
DISSERTATION
Doctor of Philosophy
American Studies
The University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
July, 2016

iii
DEDICATION
For Sherry Fletcher and Annette Rodriguez

iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project was made possible by many people. My heartfelt thanks go to my brilliant
committee: A. Gabriel Meléndez, for guiding me, standing by me and seeing my
dissertation to completion; Michael Trujillo, for his enthusiasm, convictions and keen
ethnographic eye; Chris Wilson, for his impeccable scholarship and for changing the
trajectory of my academic and professional life; and Miguel Gandert, for his infallible
good spirits, visionary aesthetic and commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship. I would
like to thank Sandy Rodrigue, who stays with us in American Studies despite her own
advanced degree. Sandy cares for graduate students in remarkable ways.
I owe thanks to many others. To the people in my dissertation town of Truth or
Consequences, New Mexico, who gave me time, energy, insights, and more time, I thank
you. My commitment to the future of your town is for life. At UNM, the Center for
Regional Studies, the Office of Graduate Studies, the Graduate and Professional Student
Association, and the Department of American Studies all provided funding. To Sherry
Fletcher and Baxter Brown, thank you for everything—I could not have done this without
your support. To Annette Rodriguez, you kept me believing.
My family is my center. To my father, Dr. Wayne Shrubsall, thank you for your
support, fine mind, and for listening to me with love and care. You set me on this
intellectual path. To my mother, Barbara Berger, thank you for showing me the beauty in
the world, for your unfailing sense of adventure and artistic soul. To my sister, Miriah
Mirimanian, thank you for standing up for me. And finally, to my daughter, Emagen
Schultz, thank you for being my bonny companion. You are a dazzling, beautiful, funny,
smart and wonderful. You are the most extraordinary person I have ever known.