Professional headshot of Dr. Christy Hyman
Dr. Christy Hyman

Christy Hyman

Assistant Professor of Geography

301G Hilbun Hall
Mississippi State, MS 39762

Dr. Christy Hyman, is an Assistant Professor of Human Geography in the Department of Geosciences at Mississippi State University with a joint appointment in the Program of African American Studies. Her research focuses on African-American efforts toward cultural and political assertion in the southeastern United States region during the antebellum era as well as the attendant social and environmental costs of human/landscape resource exploitation. Hyman uses Geographic Information Systems to observe to what extent digital cartography can inform us of the human experience while acknowledging phenomena deriving from oppressive systems in society threatening sustainable futures. Her research seeks to provide evidence of the genealogies and practices of historically marginalized people’s navigational literacy. Relying on foundational black geographies scholarship, Hyman’s research is also theoretically rooted in black feminist theory, critical geography, geographies of transport, and landscape studies.

Education

  • Ph.D. Geography (2022), University of Nebraska Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska.
  • M.A. History (2013), Virginia State University, Petersburg, VA.
  • B.A. (2008), University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, N.C.

Experience

  • Assistant Professor: Department of Geosciences, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, August, 2022 present
  • Part Time Instructor: Department of History, N.C. A&T State University, Greensboro, N.C., August, 2021- 2022
  • Adjunct Instructor: Department of History, Missouri State University, Springfield, M.O., August, 2013- 2015

Research Interests

  • Environmental Justice
  • Historical Geography
  • Cultural Geography
  • Black Geographies
  • Environmental History
  • Cartometry
  • Oral History
  • Rural Geography
  • Participatory Mapping
  • Naive Geography
  • Feminist Geography

Honors/Professional Activities

  • Southeastern Division for the Rural Geography Specialty Group– role: Southeast Region Director
  • Black Geographies Specialty Group Executive Council– role: Assistant Communications Director 2022-2024
  • Association for the Study of African-American Life and History 2022 Digital Humanities Committee– member 2021-present
  • Oral History Association, Emerging Professionals Committee (September 2021-present)
  • Social Justice Task Force, Member (2020-present).
  • Great Dismal Swamp Stakeholder Collaborative, Member (December 2019-present).

Recent Publications

  • “Critical Engagement into GIS Methods While Wrestling with Slavery’s Archive,” in Spatial Futures: Difference and the Post-Anthropocene edited by Heidi J. Nast, Alex Papadopoulos, and LaToya Eaves. Palgrave, forthcoming.
  • “GIS AND THE MAPPING OF ENSLAVED MOVEMENT: THE MATRIX OF RISK” Environmental History Now (August 19, 2021), <https://envhistnow.com/2021/08/19/gis-and-the-mapping-of-enslaved-moveme... >
  • “To Render a Landscape of Trauma: Deep Mapping a Historical Landscape of Domination—The Great Dismal Swamp,” in Expanding the Boundaries of Black Intellectual History, ed. Leslie Alexander, Brandon Byrd, and Russell Rickford. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2021.
  • “BLACK IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT: Restoring Black Visibility and Liberation to Digital Humanities”with Nishani Frazier and Hilary Green, in Digital Humanities Debates 2023 ed. Lauren Klein and Matthew Gold. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, forthcoming.
  • “Review Essay: Digital History and the Civil War Era,” with Cameron Blevins in Journal of the Civil War Era, doi:10.1353/cwe.2022.0004.