Feminist Graffiti, Public Space, and the Pandemic: Understanding How the Les Colleuses Movement Challenges Space on the Streets of Paris and Online

Les Colleuses is a feminist graffiti group based in France. Their collage and protests focuses on the issue of femicide, but also addresses a wide range of women’s issues and challenges public space. Geography has long studied graffiti to understand dynamics of public space, identity, social hierarchy, and state power. This thesis moves to incorporate a different graffitist, a woman, into this rich dialogue. With a gendered approach, the work explores how the group organizes using social media, engages with gender and feminisms, contests public space and interacts with state, and how the group has adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic. In researching during the pandemic, these key themes have become more pronounced. The thesis crafts three methodological approaches— researching from home, Instagram as an archive, and visual methods— in response to methodological questions around field accessibility and social media. In doing so, the work moves towards qualitative approaches for studying visual social media.

Author

• Monnier-Reyna, Madalena Natalia

Language

• en

Keyword

• Social Media
• Graffiti
• Space
• Visual Methods
• Researching From Home
• Feminist Protest

Date created

• 2021

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Geography

Degree

• M.S.

Advisor

• Cullen, Declan R
• Atia, Mona

Committee Member(s)

• Reisser, Wesley

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/dr26xz09w