As a broadly trained critical human geographer, my areas of research and teaching specialization include cultural-historical geography, GIS, the politics of memory and commemoration, heritage tourism landscapes, settler colonial studies, and critical race and ethnic studies. While I am interested in the globalized and transnational dimensions of commemorative processes, having been born and raised in rural Tennessee shapes my approach and orientation to my work, which has primarily been in the southern U.S. and Brazil. My doctoral dissertation examined the politics of commemorating the migration of U.S. Southerners to Brazil after the Civil War – who came to be known as “Confederados” – to avoid the consequences of Reconstruction. My findings earned the Best Paper Award for the Journal of Heritage Tourism in 2021 and have been featured in The Conversation, The Washington Post, Folha de São Paulo, and other outlets.
Experience
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2024–presentVisiting Assistant Professor of Geography, Macalester College
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2020–2022Assistant Professor of Geography, Columbus State University
Education
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2020University of Tennessee, Doctor of Philosophy in Geography
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2016Oklahoma State University, Master's of Science in Geography
Publications
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2020Journal of Heritage Tourism, Creating 'Confederate pioneers': a spatial narrative analysis of race, settler colonialism, and heritage tourism at the Museu da Imigraçao, Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, São Paulo
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2018Social & Cultural Geography, Was Tulsa's Brady Street really renamed? Racial (in)justice, memory-work, and neoliberalism's mandate of least disruption.
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2017Papers in Applied Geography, Applying critical race and memory studies to university place naming controversies: toward a responsible landscape policy.
Professional Memberships
- American Association of Geographers
- Website
- @jpbrasher
- Article Feed
- jbrasher@macalester.edu
- ORCID
- Joined
