TIMOTHY KNEELAND, NAZARETH COLLEGE
Proposal Type
Structured Conversation
Seeking
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
Related Topics
- Memory
- Reflections on the Field
- Social Justice
Abstract
The public commemoration of key moments or eras in the past has often served as a tool to reinforce existing social hierarchies and to exclude or negate the history of marginalized groups. For example celebrations of historical events and figures in the past were used by advocates of the Lost Cause mythology to subvert the potential for social and political change in the South.
In this structured conversation, panelists will use case studies to discuss how communities have come to recollect the past in a way that obliterates or erases the role of others. How commemoration can be a tool to police communities whose alternate recollection of the past might threaten community self-image.
Description
The goal of this converation is to develop ideas, methods, or tools that public historians can deploy to begin to pull at the threads of commemoration that have been woven together to legitimize the history of some and cover over the history of others.
We seek to solicit theoretical insights, public historian’s perspectives on this, and to share their own stories of encountering this. We seek to know if this is a topic of interest to public historians and how they have dealt with this issue when working with community leaders. We would welcome others to join the panel and enter this conversation.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Timothy Kneeland, [email protected]
All feedback and offers of assistance should be submitted by July 1, 2019. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
Timothy, I think this proposal needs a bit more focus, perhaps by honing in on a specific commemoration (perhaps of an anniversary since this is NCPH’s 40th anniversary as well as anniversaries of the 15th and 19th amendments to the U.S Constitution). Or do you want to focus on omission and exclusions of marginalized narratives? Some of these questions may be answered if you have potential session collaborators come forward.
Rebecca,
Thanks for the feedback. I agree that the proposal is diffuse. We will be honing in on the elements of omission and erasure that accompany specific commemorative events but hope to have a lively conversation about all kinds of activities surrounding public memory, even the NCPH! I have three other collaborators, and we will refine the final version before July submission. What do you think of the topic in general?
I think the topic in general goes well with this year’s theme! Good luck.
Hi Timothy, this continues to be a timely discussion that keeps unfolding into exciting public forums, new questions and directions concerning contested heritage. I think Rebecca’s idea to narrow it down and tie it directly into the 40th anniversary commemorations is a great one (around 15th & 19th amendments). For example, there have been many discussions lately about commemorating women’s histories through public statues or other markers (eg., the new Shirley Chisholm installation that will be built in NYC), and debates around how we commemorate the fight for suffrage – especially considering how indigenous, Latinx and African American women are often written out of these stories. Sally Roesch Wagner, a public historian from the Matilda Joslyn Gage Center in New York, discusses indigenous women’s overlooked role in suffrage. (See her recently published an book on this:“ The Women’s Suffrage Movement.” Feb. 2019). It might be interesting to tap into these anniversaries to focus your topic on commemoration.
Jennifer,
I absolutely agree. Nice point about Sally Roesch Wagner, whose work I know well ( Syracuse is 75 miles away from my home base in Rochester). Our panelists include individuals who are looking at specific case studies in which women and Native communities were excluded from commemorations of the fur trade; specific examples from Canadian history of omissions of ethnic and Native people from commemorative events, and future attempts to be more inclusive when celebrating the upcoming 250th anniversary of ther American Revolution, and a project to restore women into the narrative of commemorative events. When we prepare the formal proposal we will sharpen the focus and include a case statement from each participant.
Timothy,
I’m intrigued by this proposal, and appreciate the multiple tacts that people have suggested. Without stirring the pot too much, I’d like to suggest another. My scholarship, which also includes contracts with the National Park Service, invariably deals with the subjects you present –but more in terms of embedding ideologies into landscapes and structures. Converting homelands into parks, or reconstructing historical sites (eg., fur trade posts/forts), create perpetual commemorations that –by their encompassing permanence– give lasting confirmation to basic assumptions while doing little to invite or provoke questions.
This seems like a potentially terrific panel. If you’re looking for additional panelists, I suggest you contact Boyd Cothran at York University, who has written about the politics of memory surrounding the Modoc War, or David Grua, a historian and editor with the Joseph Smith Papers in the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who has written about the commemoration of the Wounded Knee Massacre.
Ari,
Thanks for the suggestions. We have rounded the panel out by including panelists from a diverse set of perspectives and practices (museums, public historians, academics, etc). However, I am going to look up and read the literature you mentioned! Hope to see you in Atlanta!