Project Description:
Daniel Theriault, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Recreation Management and Physical Education, along with Rasul Mowatt, Ph.D., Head of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at North Carolina State University, were funded to study African Americans’ relationships with nature. Wilderness has been constructed as White, in part through histories that marginalize African American attitudes and experiences. In response, this article provides an overview of African Americans’ relationships with nature during three historical periods: (a) Enslavement, (b) Reconstruction and Postreconstruction, and (c) 1936–1994. African Americans’ relationships with nature were created through an ongoing dialectic of oppression and transgression throughout each historical period. Four types of transgression were identified: wilderness as a space free of White oppression, wilderness as a site to challenge White oppression, engagement with nature despite White oppression, and advocacy for more just relationships with wilderness. Transgression is discussed as a means to remember environmental history and envision new relationships between African Americans and wilderness in the present, bonds for which transgression may one day no longer be necessary.
Daniel Theriault
Ph.D., Recreation Management Program Director, Assistant Professor
Department of Recreation Management and Physical Education
Rasul Mowatt
Ph.D., Head of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management
College of Natural Resources, North Carolina State University
Professor
Departments of American Studies & Geography; Recreation, Park, and Tourism Studies; Indiana University Bloomington