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THE PEOPLE'S GEOGRAPHY PROJECT
By Don Mitchell, 09/16/2001

The People's Geography Project (www.peoplesgeography.org) is establishing a clearinghouse of materials - lesson ideas, syllabuses, resources, commentaries, etc. - that can help us create a useful, public, and critical geography of the roots, effects, likely consequences, and changed geographies resulting from this weeks terrorist attacks in New York and Washington (including the plane crashed in Pennsylvania).

We think geographers - through their teaching and research - can help people understand what has happened and to see alternatives to escalating war. We think we can help people also understand the geographically, socially, and politically uneven roots and consequences of this attack. We also know there are a whole range of issues thatneed to be understood - the geopolitical and destructive power of the U.S. and SW Asia, the privatization of airport security in the US (and its operation as a "low-bid" business), the nature of urban and architectural symbolism, the power of the media, the transformation of the state, the roots of terrorism, the on-going struggles of Palestinian peoples, etc.

We know that many of you have been teaching about this week's events in your courses and lectures, have been pulling together resources, have written analyses, etc. We think it would be especially useful, to geographers and to the general public, to pool our collective knowledge and understanding, as well as to see where gaps remain.

The purpose of the clearinghouse will be to provide a resource for teachers (at all levels), for the lay public, and for geographical researchers.

If you have outlines of lectures or exercises, know of good web and paper resources, have written analyses that touch on this weeks events, their roots, or their likely consequences, please send them to me at dmmitc01@maxwell.syr.edu or to Rich Van Deusen at rwvandeu@maxwell.syr.edu. We also welcome any ideas about the sorts of materials we should be gathering, analyses that need to be made, means of teaching that need to be explored.

We will endeavor to post materials to the People's Geography Website (www.peoplesgeography.org) as quickly as possible and to spread the word among teachers, interested publics, etc. about their availability.

Over time we hope to be able to put together teaching packets, pamphlets, and other materials, written in accessible language that can then be distributed to any who wants them.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Don is the Director of the People's Geography Project at Syracuse University.

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