Bess Matassa

Bess Matassa holds an MA in Cultural Geography and conducted her thesis research on the spatialization of play and memory along the Coney Island boardwalk in Brooklyn, New York. Currently, Bess is most interested in examining cultural representations of urban decline and disorder in late 1970s New York City, and ethnographically exploring how memories of this “Rotten Apple” era circulate within present-day urban spaces. Other research interests include urban ruins, the waterfronts of New Jersey and New York, Bruce Springsteen, disco music, sensuous geographies and material waste, and Performance Studies.

bmatassa@gwmail.gwu.edu