Annie Elledge

I received my B.A. in International Relations & Global Studies and Government from the University of Texas at Austin in 2018. While at UT Austin, I co-founded and co-organized the Feminist Geography Collective, a research group aimed at supporting women of color in Geography.

 

Currently, I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working with Dr. Betsy Olson. My research interests include feminist political geography, critical fat geographies, critical disability studies and geographies of the U.S. South.

 

My M.A. thesis traced the historical development of Durham, North Carolina as the “Diet Capital of the World.” In my recent publication entitled, “Weight loss, Cure, and Temporality in the ‘Diet Capital of the World’: Disciplining Fatness in Durham, North Carolina,” I bring together crip/queer theory, urban space, and fatness to argue dieting landscapes imagine futures without fat people. My dissertation research examines the weight-inclusive wellness industry in North Carolina’s Research Triangle emphasizing fat people’s identity formation and place-making practices.

 

I am also interested in the capacity for feminist collective building to support women of color within Geography. I co-wrote an interlude with Caroline Faria and Dominica Whitesell on their experiences building and sustaining UT Austin’s Feminist Geography Collective in Feminist Geography Unbound: Intimacy, Territory and Embodied Power.

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In addition to my research, I am a project member for the UNC Land Back/Abolition Project led by Dr. Danielle Purifoy and Dr. Sara Smith.

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To read my recent publications, visit my Google Scholar or Academia.edu profiles.