Professor Jerry Webster and Professor Nicholas Crane did a presentation on iconography of the Confederate Flag and iconography used in feminicidio combative acts for Geography Awareness week, a nationally recognized event.
“Dr. Webster and Dr. Crane are the book ends of our program,” Lindy Westenhoff, graduate president of the University of Wyoming Geography Club, said. “With Webster bringing 30 years of experience surrounding the confederate battle flag and Dr. Crane who is conducting fieldwork into a less-known area, we are looking at two distinct subjects that strongly parallel each other. I think this is a huge reason why this event was successful.”
Webster taught as a professor at UW as well as in some southern states such as the University of Alabama, focusing in political geography, electoral geography, secessionist groups and voting rights. This year, he presented about the iconographic significance and history of the Confederate flag.
“When she [Lindy Westenhoff] asked me to present of course I said yes,” said Webster.
This political iconographic Confederate flag may be an example of both positive and negative symbolism to different groups in the United States, dependent on a group’s race, geographic location, age and other characteristics, Webster said.
Webster said that traditional white southerners see the battle flag as a proud symbol of their ancestors from the civil war and in opposition of tyranny with a Christian religious significance, lacking any significance to racism or slavery.
The flag has continued to be a question of heritage or hate flying over the state capital of South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi for a time and continues to be an issue when worn on clothing in diverse high schools said Webster.
Styled after the flag of Scotland with the same cross of St. Andrews, the confederate flag went through several different styles, to how we recognize it today. It has also reappeared throughout history during times of turmoil such as during desegregation of schools, Webster said.
Commenting on the use of the confederate flag in the west, Webster discussed its popularity and the various meanings it has for different populations, discussing the rising popularity of the Southern Nationalist Flag.
Crane’s presentation was entitled Iconography, Feminicidio, and the Global Disappeared and he discussed the concept of disposable lives on a global scale.
Crane gave a definition for this Spanish term, Feminicidio, used in Latin America, the murder of women because they are women and the effect of homicidal masculinity.
Observations of Feminicidio was recognized in Ciudad Juaraz, Mexico in 1993 when activists began to count the dead, with a significant spike in the murder of women. Not all of the numbers reported were or are accurate as they are typically skewed because the true numbers would suggest ungovernability, an undesirable effect by Latin American governments explained Crane.
Crane discussed that it is estimated that between 2007 and 2014, 17,000 women were murdered in Mexico.
As for the disappeared, according to estimates, 30,000 have disappeared since 2006 with suggestions that this is happening at the hand of the Mexican government with collaboration of cartels, Crane said.
In attempts to combat these acts, new iconographic means have developed in Mexico with art projects. Installments of pink crosses across from government buildings, representing the murdered women, and pasted photos of women throughout the city, which are constantly torn down, explained Crane.
This leads to the funeralization of a city, or drawing attention to the neglect by collecting the photos or missing signs and creating new art from the torn posters.
With the issue not limited to women, giving an example of 43 school children from a rural, bilingual school who disappeared, some found with graphic mutilations to their bodies, Crane said.
Crane concluded his speech by mentioning that no lives are disposable.
“Going off this year’s theme, the geography of civil rights movements, this is an exciting intersection of geography and youth activism, a subject I have always been particularly interested in,” explained Crane.
