Author ORCID Identifier
Date Available
5-10-2025
Year of Publication
2023
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Document Type
Master's Thesis
College
Arts and Sciences
Department/School/Program
Geography
First Advisor
Dr. Nick Lally
Abstract
This project examines digital maps and images made by migrants and activists traversing or helping others to traverse the Greek-Turkish maritime border in 2015 and early 2016, when over a million people arrived to European shores, mostly by way of the Aegean Sea. These maps were made using applications such as Google Maps, Bing Maps, Maps.me, and WhatsApp and circulated on public Facebook groups and pages. Through a visual analysis of these digital artifacts, I look at how they can be read to witness and contest deadly border geographies produced through migratory policies and practices of deterrence. Further, I argue that these map and image making practices innovate new evidentiary forms with which to visualize border space and document the violence inflicted there. Approaching migrant-activists as creative and adept cartographers, the resulting map artifacts this project examines are sites where aesthetic border politics, critical cartography, and counter-forensic practice come together in generative ways.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2023.173
Funding Information
American Association of Geographers Cartography Specialty Group Master’s Thesis Research Grant (2022)
Department of Geography, University of Kentucky, Barnhardt-Withington-Block Research Funding (2022)
Recommended Citation
Abbott, Beatrice A., "MIGRANT-ACTIVIST EVIDENTIARY PRACTICES IN THE AEGEAN SEA" (2023). Theses and Dissertations--Geography. 93.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/geography_etds/93
