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Planting Roots: An Oral and Visual History of Polish Immigrant Gardening in Chicagoland

Grabowski, Aleksandra LU (2024) HEKM51 20241
Department of Human Geography
Human Ecology
Abstract
Immigrants’ means of making home have arisen as an important locus of study amidst the ever-present cycles of migration coloring our world. This work takes a homemaking lens to address the home gardening practices and related environmental interactions of Polish immigrants in the Chicago area. It mixes oral history, ethnographic garden walks, as well as the arts-based research methods of autobiographical narrative and illustration. This approach is situated under visual anthropology, vividly exploring lived experiences and forming cultural records of Chicago immigration history. Gardening emerges as a way for Polish immigrants to create home through exerting embodied agency over their natural surroundings. These engagements are... (More)
Immigrants’ means of making home have arisen as an important locus of study amidst the ever-present cycles of migration coloring our world. This work takes a homemaking lens to address the home gardening practices and related environmental interactions of Polish immigrants in the Chicago area. It mixes oral history, ethnographic garden walks, as well as the arts-based research methods of autobiographical narrative and illustration. This approach is situated under visual anthropology, vividly exploring lived experiences and forming cultural records of Chicago immigration history. Gardening emerges as a way for Polish immigrants to create home through exerting embodied agency over their natural surroundings. These engagements are characterized by cultivating stability through change, remaking sub/urban Chicago, enjoying life through skilled leisure, and creating multispecies community. Through this, a range of environmental perspectives and interplay with natural forces are emplaced in gardens. This work emphasizes the significance of leisure activities among migrant communities, illuminating gardening as a series of fulfilling, grounded practices throughout lifeways shaped by movement. It also responds to calls to fuse art into qualitative research, strengthening arguments for its legitimacy as well as introducing ethnographic illustration as a potent method of inquiry. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Grabowski, Aleksandra LU
supervisor
organization
course
HEKM51 20241
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
gardening, Polish Chicago, homemaking, visual anthropology, oral history, arts-based research, illustration
language
English
id
9171860
date added to LUP
2024-09-12 09:24:40
date last changed
2024-09-12 09:24:40
@misc{9171860,
  abstract     = {{Immigrants’ means of making home have arisen as an important locus of study amidst the ever-present cycles of migration coloring our world. This work takes a homemaking lens to address the home gardening practices and related environmental interactions of Polish immigrants in the Chicago area. It mixes oral history, ethnographic garden walks, as well as the arts-based research methods of autobiographical narrative and illustration. This approach is situated under visual anthropology, vividly exploring lived experiences and forming cultural records of Chicago immigration history. Gardening emerges as a way for Polish immigrants to create home through exerting embodied agency over their natural surroundings. These engagements are characterized by cultivating stability through change, remaking sub/urban Chicago, enjoying life through skilled leisure, and creating multispecies community. Through this, a range of environmental perspectives and interplay with natural forces are emplaced in gardens. This work emphasizes the significance of leisure activities among migrant communities, illuminating gardening as a series of fulfilling, grounded practices throughout lifeways shaped by movement. It also responds to calls to fuse art into qualitative research, strengthening arguments for its legitimacy as well as introducing ethnographic illustration as a potent method of inquiry.}},
  author       = {{Grabowski, Aleksandra}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Planting Roots: An Oral and Visual History of Polish Immigrant Gardening in Chicagoland}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}