Research

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash

Megan Ybarra es geógrafa interesada en relaciones entre humanos y no-humanos, particularmente la articulación entre la justicia ambiental y abolición de cárceles y centros de detención, desde la perspective de estudios indígenas y teoría crítica de la raza.

Después de trabajar en el desarrollo comunitario en Guatemala durante dos años (2003-2005), pasó la siguiente década investigando y escribiendo sobre territorio e identidad en las tierras bajas del norte de Guatemala. Sus investigaciones se han centrado en temáticas relacionadas con derechos indígenas, racismo en acceso a la tierra, y movimientos sociales. Se graduó como doctora en política y gestión ambiental por la Universidad de California, Berkeley, en 2010. Actualmente es Profesora Asociada de Geografía en la Universidad de Washington, Seattle, donde imparte cursos de justicia ambiental, derechos de los inmigrantes en los EEUU y geografías de abolición.

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  • Illustration of woman with her eyes closed dreaming of walking in the grass with her family, with prison bars in the background

    Abolition Geographies

    My research imagines what abolition geographies mean in practice -- a Tacoma without a detention center? a Seattle without a police department? All too often, seeking to end violence ends up relying on hierarchies of oppression, the non-profit industrial complex (NPIC), and individualized charismatic leadership. Instead, I think about radical placemaking that is centered on relationships of solidarity, an abolition that means that no person --and no land --  is disposable, and building non-hierarchical relations across communities on the same place.

    In addition to zines, documentaries, and podcasts, I am working on two book manuscripts. The first, The Aroma of Tacoma, traces the intertwined struggles for the abolition of immigrant detention and environmental justice on Tacoma's Tar Pits. The second, Abolition Ecologies, is a co-authored book with Nik Heynen that offer up freedom experiments for collective lands and peoples.

    (Illustration by Wesley Carrasco)

  • Map of Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, with yellow and red marking environmental vulnerabilities to inundation

    Environmental Justice

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  • White text reads "Race Card" over Nopal loteria card image

    Latinx Geographies

    My research working with Q'eqchi' land activists challenged my assumptions about a singular Chicanx / Latinx identity. Attention to place-making in Latinx geographies reveals what is at stake in Latino studies' cultural appropriation of Indigenous language and art for Indigenous nations' material claims to their homelands. I both join the call for Latinx geographies to be accountable for anti-Blackness and Indigenous appropriations and trace the importance of Latine collective power in social movements for language justice and immigrant rights.