The DH Graduate Fellow Spotlights highlight work supported by the NYU DH Graduate Fellowship Program.
Below, 2022 Fellow Ayami Hatanaka briefly about Why Are There No ACS Offices in SoHo?.
For her Graduate Fellowship project, 2022 Fellow Ayami Hatanaka sought to answer the question her project title poses, “Why Are There No ACS Offices in SoHo?” The overarching research question for this digital mapping project was: what does understanding space relationally reveal about surveillance tools and practices in family policing? Asking such a question is rooted in the methodologies of Black Feminist Geographies. Following Simone Browne’s work regarding surveillance technologies, she aimed to understand the spatial relationship between schools, child welfare offices, and the space of the home through the home visits caseworkers conduct.
When asked what she was most proud of, Hatanaka remarked, “I am most proud of the actual map I developed! It is really cool, especially as someone who is based more in the Humanities, to produce a visual representation of what I’d like to work with to better understand how surveillance happens. I’m excited to be presenting this work at a conference in the Fall.”
Hatanaka has exciting plans moving forward. “I will continue to develop and write with the map. I hope to add more information to it over the next summer, which will hopefully elucidate more insights about the surveillance of families in New York City. Ultimately, I hope the map might be a resource for those directly impacted by family policing who are pushing for change.”
To describe the benefits of the fellowship, Hatanaka commented, “The one-on-one meetings to help with experts in the Digital Scholarship Services team and the Data Services team at the library were incredibly helpful. They helped me build the skills to work with ArcGISOnline, which has been really exciting! And the support and interest they expressed in the project was deeply encouraging!”