Corinna J. Moebius, Ph.D.
Writer · Cultural Anthropologist · Public Historian
Tracing how history, memory, and power shape the places we call home.
Co-author of A History of Little Havana and author of the forthcoming Magic Cities: Little Havana and the Rituals of Power.
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How do landscapes become altars for the magic of politics, especially in times of change? How are they transformed for rituals aimed at securing, protecting—or creatively challenging—systems of power and control?
Much of my research has focused on the Miami neighborhood and heritage district of Little Havana and its own role in myth-making, and local to global politics. I’ve documented the varied ways people respond to relocation, displacement, and loss of home. Some consecrate landscapes, purge others from their homes, cast myths like spells, and inscribe borders like circles of protection. But trickster magic is also present, with subversion hidden in plain sight.
Our perceptions of home (and who belongs) influence our identities, our beliefs, and how we navigate our world. “Home” is embodied in everything from house to heritage district, neighborhood to city, nation to region. When we better understand why we relate to our environment the way we do, we notice what and who is silenced and disappeared, and we rethink our path. We can restore what I call core-respondence, recognizing the power of the Living Earth and our caring relationship with it.
I have studied our relationship with place for more than thirty years now (two of them in Little Havana), working at the crossroads of cultural anthropology, geography, and public history. Since childhood, I’ve also been a student of magic and the Living Earth. I share what I find as a guide—through walking “detours,” counter-mapping, writing and speaking, workshops, and classes.
As mentioned in/on:
Current Projects
Magic Cities
A transnational history of Miami’s Little Havana and Havana, with links to places like NYC and Washington, D.C.—where monuments, trees, and streets become altars of power. Part history, part cultural analysis, written for a broad public.
Core-Respondence
A practice that helps people re-orient to place/home and rethink “self” through story, movement, and ritual, without reproducing exclusionary narratives. Tools for belonging, repair, and action. Coming soon …
Little Havana
Resources, walking tours, and research on Little Havana’s (and Calle Ocho’s) layered histories: ritual, memory, and resistance in Miami’s most storied neighborhood.
Writings
I write about the “altared” landscapes of our lives—the places where history, memory, grief, and magic meet. My essays follow the same questions as my books: how power roots itself in place, and how people resist and remake it.
Subscribe on Substack (free) for new essays, and explore my books—including the forthcoming Magic Cities: Little Havana and the Rituals of Power.
Speaking & Workshops
Speaking Topics
Invite me to help your audience see places and power anew. Or take one of my workshops, and practice belonging and repair through story, movement, and place.
- Magic Cities:
Ritual, Power & the Places We Make - Core-Respondence:
Practices for Finding “Home” in a Shaky World (also offered as a workshop) - Landscapes as Altars:
Rethinking Public Memory - Walking as Method:
Designing Transformative Site Encounters
