Paper short abstract:

I deal with displacement/resettlement as a spatial issue, with a focus on gender in public spaces. In a case study in Egyptian Nubians, after their displacement in 1964. In this research I map my village, using autoethnographic methodology.

Paper long abstract:

In this article, I aim to study power structures in resettled societies, specifically, to conduct spatial analysis with regard to issues of gender. This research takes a single case study approach; in which I chose the case of Qustul, a Nubian village displaced due to Aswan High Dam, to examine the change of spatial belonging within public spaces, and also to detect other qualities of publicness that have emerged. Public spaces are indeed political; for they represent values and foster the ability to reform these values. Therefore, I look at these spaces to see how mapping gender and spatial histories will grant an insight to changes, after 50 years of displacement.

Problematizing gender is central in this research; I believe studying how this matriarchal society has turned into a patriarchy, and its compliance to the patriarchal metanarrative of the Egyptian state; will offer many answers to current spatial issues. In this inquiry I, the researcher, position myself within the research; as I am from Qustul, to see how my being a scholar of urbanism, a feminist and a Nubian girl will impact the outcome, in which I use autoethnographic techniques.