Brittany Barrineau is a Ph.D. candidate in Geography at the University of Kentucky and an ACOR-CAORC Fellow in the fall of 2016.
Her research project, “Exporting Heritage and Highlighting Politics: Extra Virgin Olive Oil Production in Jordan,” examines how state power, international geopolitics and place based identities converge in the complex relationship between farmers, their land, and the business of extra virgin olive oil. She will consider how different policies, practices and networks impact labor and regulate territorial spaces and claims. She will also examine how economic benefit, heritage preservation and national claims are expressed and materialized through olive oil production. Her larger goal is to understand the implications of olive oil production on territory, governance and place-based identities.
Barrineau’s interest in olive oil began when she participated in olive picking trips with tourists and activists in Palestine. She conducted research on Fair Trade oil production, community mapping and alternative tourism in Palestine in 2013, and then her focus shifted to Jordan and expanded to include a greater array of factors and players in the production and export of olive oil.
Brittany Barrineau is currently a Ph.D. candidate in geography at the University of Kentucky. She earned an M.A. in Geography (2012) from the University of South Carolina and a B.A. in Geography and Anthropology (2009) from the University of Mary Washington.
To learn more about Barrineau and her work, visit her web page at https://geography.as.uky.edu/user/3974.
Written by Sarah Schweyen, a student at St. Olaf College who is studying abroad in the fall 2016 semester in Amman, Jordan with the Amideast program.
