Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Christina Carasis Social Science

Spatializing Belonging: Arvanite Cartographies in the Greek Nation-State

Scholars Journal

Participatory mapping is a geographic methodology that empowers communities to represent themselves spatially, mapping their own local knowledge counter to the dominant geopolitical narrative. Christina’s research examines how the use of participatory mapping reveals the lived geographies of marginalized groups obscured within ethnostates, serving as a tool for cultural revitalization. Working with the Arvanites, an endangered ethnolinguistic group present in Greece since the 13th century, Christina will use oral history and social mapping methods to create a public storymap of contemporary Arvanite communities, documenting cultural knowledge through a spatial lens, and providing a digital framework that supports ongoing revitalization and preservation efforts. By expanding methodological approaches for mapping marginalized populations, Christina aims to develop a replicable framework for representing minority communities within ethnostates, challenging monolithic narratives of national identity.