Dr. Ethan Bottone

Assistant Professor of Geography

Assistant Department Chair

Education

• Ph.D. Geography; University of Tennessee – Knoxville
• M.S. Geography; Ohio University
• B.A. Geography/Biology; University of Mary Washington

Courses Taught

Academic Interest

I am a historical geographer by training, with interests in tourism, mobility, and race. My dissertation research explored landscapes and mobility networks of the Green Book, a Jim Crow-era travel guide developed and used by black travelers. I am particularly interested in “tourist homes,” private homes and apartments rented to travelers, that were listed within the Green Book, as these spaces represented a very personal form of resistant hospitality to the pervasive injustices of institutional white supremacy. 

Outside of the Green Book, I am interested in other forms of “Just” tourism, including accessible tourism and indigenous heritage. In terms of accessible tourism, I work to understand how people with disabilities are represented (or more accurately, excluded) in tourism promotional materials and physical spaces. I also seek to understand how the history and spaces of American Indian removal, particularly sites of violence, are interpreted and remembered. I have recently developed a project focused on the Potawatomi Trail of Death, a series of markers memorializing the forced removal of American Indians from northern Indiana to eastern Kansas. Given the numerous visitors who engage with touristic spaces in the United States, understanding how historically marginalized communities, including people with disabilities and indigenous peoples, are represented and included in such spaces is exceedingly important if any efforts towards social justice and equity are to succeed.

Scholarly Activity

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• Bottone, E. (2022). “’Your Home – Away From Home’: Tourist Homes and Hospitality as Resistance.” Tourism Geographies: 1-22.
• Alderman, D.H., K. Williams, and E. Bottone. (2022). “Jim Crow Journey Stories: African American Driving as Emotional Labor.” Tourism Geographies 24 (2-3: Attuning to Affect and Emotion in Tourism Studies): 198-222.
• Alderman, D.H., J.F.J. Inwood, and E. Bottone. (2021). “The Mapping Behind the Movement: On Recovering the Critical Cartographies of the African American Freedom Struggle.” Geoforum 120: 67-78.
• Benjamin, S., E. Bottone, and M. Lee. (2021). “Beyond Accessibility: Exploring the Representation of People with Disabilities in Tourism Promotional Materials.” Journal of Sustainable Tourism 29 (2-3: Special Issue on Justice and Tourism): 295-313.
• Bottone, E. and T. Anderson. (2017). “National Discourses Materialized: Early Settlement and Land Tenure in Perry County, Ohio, 1801-1842.” Historical Geography 45: 152-171.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

• Bottone, E. (2020). “’Please Mention the Green Book:’ The Negro Motorist Green Book as Critical GIS.” In Historical Geography, GIScience, and Textual Analysis: Landscapes of Time and Place, eds. C. Travis, F. Ludlow, and F. Gyuris. Springer, 51-64.
• Bottone, E., D.H. Alderman, and J. Inwood. (2018). “The ‘Unmarked and Unremarked’ Memories of the National Mall: Resurrection City and the Unreconciled History of the Civil Rights Movement as Radical Place-Making.” In Rhetorics Haunting the National Mall: Displaced and Ephemeral Public Memories, ed. R. Aden. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 71-92.

Book Reviews

• Bottone, E. (2021). “Moving Violations: Automobiles, Experts, and Regulations in the United States, by Lee Vinsel.” Material Culture 53 (1): 111-113.
• Bottone, E. (2019). “Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie: Race, Urban Planning, and Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by Courtney Elizabeth Knapp.” Southeastern Geographer 59 (4): 424-427.
• Bottone, E. (2019). “Hawai’i’s Scenic Roads: Paving the Way for Tourism in the Islands, by Dawn E. Duensing.” Material Culture 51 (1): 57-59.
• Bottone, E. (2019). “Pasadena Before the Roses: Race, Identity, and Land Use in Southern California, 1771-1890, by Yvette J. Saavedra.” Historical Geography 47: 257-259.

Recent Conference Presentations

• Bottone, E. “(De)Constructing Ivy Green: Geographies of Disability & Tourism at Helen Keller’s Birthplace.” Paper. Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, November 2022.
• Bottone, E., Alderman, D.H., & Benjamin, S. “’An Unstable Atmosphere:’ The Spatial Construction of Conflicting Atmospheres at the Titanic Museum & Attraction.” Paper. International Society for Landscape, Place, and Material Culture Annual Meeting, Atlantic City, NJ, October 2022.
• Bottone, E. “Settler Colonialism and Counter-Memory along Missouri’s Potawatomi Trail of Death.” Paper. Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Florence, AL, November 2021.
• Bottone, E. “’Your Home – Away From Home:’ Tourist Homes and Examples of Hospitality as Resistance from the Green Book.” Paper. Vernacular Architecture Forum Annual Meeting, Virtual, May 2021.
• Bottone, E. “Reading the Green Book: The Intersection of Black Geographies and Critical GIS.” Paper. Southeastern Division of the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Wilmington, NC, November 2019. 
• Bottone, E. “The Green Book and Black Chattanooga: Reconstructing Urban Communities of Color through Repeat Photography.” Paper. International Society for Landscape, Place, and Material Culture Annual Meeting, Detroit, MI, October 2019.

Other Professional Experiences

• Research Fellow, Tourism RESET (Race, Ethnicity, and Social Equity in Tourism)
• Member, Board of Directors, International Society for Landscape, Place, and Material Culture (2019-2022 term)
• Co-Director, NEH Summer Teacher Institute: The Role of Geographic Mobility in the African American Freedom Struggle, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, July 3^rd – 22^nd 2022