How Primo Levi’s notion of the “gray zone” applies to the contemporary situation of Yellowstone National Park

Question

Please cite any publication from which you directly quote. Please use the following format following any quotations:

([Author’s Last Name] [Year of Publication]: [Page of Quotation]). So, for example: (Faier 2009: 17).

1. Compare and contrast the ways the US’s “gatekeeping ideology” affects the lives of people in two (2) of the groups below by drawing on the perspectives of the authors/director who discuss them (listed in parentheses besides each). What similarities and differences do you see in the experiences of members of these groups? Be sure to demonstrate that you understand Erika Lee’s concept of “gatekeeping ideology” in your response; this means not only defining this concept but also identifying how she explains its history and significance to how we understand the role of our national borders today.

Possible choices:

a) Residents remaining in Longyan (Chu)

b) Lupe, Maura, Maria, and other undocumented workers in the garment industry in LA, (Almudena

Carracedo, director of Made in LA)

c) “Mestiza/o/x communities who have long lived in in the U.S.-Mexico “borderlands” (Anzaldua)

d) 1.5 generation undocumented college students in U.S. (Gonzales)

2. You are having lunch at North Campus on some sunny day in the future after campus has been re-opened. Seth Holmes and Mark David Spence are sitting at the table beside you. You begin eavesdropping on their conversation. Holmes and Spence are discussing whether or not Primo Levi’s notion of the “gray zone” applies to the contemporary situation of Yellowstone National Park, which is a popular and publicly funded destination for tourists. What do you think that Holmes and Spence would be saying about the tourists that visit Yellowstone today in regard to Levi’s notion? Would Holmes and Spence be agreeing or disagreeing, and why? (Be sure to demonstrate that you understand the notion of the “gray zone” in your response, including defining Levi’s term and how Holmes applies it.) (Note: You may answer this question in an essay format or by writing a dialogue between Holmes and Spence.)

3. The Geography Department decides to hold two special guest lectures on the “environmental shadows” cast by contemporary technology use. We invite Anna Tsing and Luke Cole and Sheila Foster to give lectures on the topic. (Tsing will give one lecture focusing on how a “relational approach to nature” could speak to the issue; and Cole and Foster will together give another lecture focusing on the issue through the lens of “environmental racism.”) What would you expect the authors to say? Be sure in your answer to define and explain what is meant by “environmental shadows,” a “relational approach to nature,” and “environmental racism.” How would these lectures fit into our broader program on cultural geography (that is, how would these lectures illustrate some key aspect of “cultural geography” as a geographical subfield)?