Hello! My three places are:

• Where I grew up, near LaFayette, Alabama. We lived in a rural area and would often walk along our dirt road finding railroad ties and pieces of pottery. This is what first got me interested in history and the traces that we leave on the landscape.
• My second place is Selma, Alabama. Selma is in Alabama's Black Belt region, named for its rich, dark soils. It continues to be defined by the legacy of slavery and the plantation agriculture system but was a hotbed of activity for the civil rights movement in the South.
• My third place is Wilson Dam, located on the Tennessee River near Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The dam was was originally constructed to provide hydroelectric power for the production of nitrates during World War I. It provided energy for regional development and is the largest conventional hydroelectric power-generating facility in the Tennessee Valley Authority system.

My name is Maiben and I am the program manager at the <a href=" removed link " target="_blank" rel="noopener">Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities. I am also a graduate student in the Department of History at Auburn University. I am interested in public history, memory, space and place. Currently my research is looking at Confederate memorials in Auburn, Alabama and the ways in which those spaces have changed over time.

When I think of geography, I think of space, borders, and people.