Monuments and Memory Work: a Resource for Learning

In 2020, controversies over Confederate monuments and memorialization of white “founders” across the United States have led to increased public awareness of the important role that history and memory play in our efforts to forge a more equitable future. The ways in which we remember and forget/erase our pasts in public spaces are processes that define our collective identity. Monuments have been viewed as a type of “archive” for the role that they play in inscribing into public memory a particular version of the past. 

UCI Libraries offers some resources for supporting our community in conversations happening around the country related to the toppling of white supremacist statues, debates about the Confederate battle flag, and a local movement to remove both the name and the statue of actor John Wayne from the Orange County airport, to name a few examples. These efforts are not new, but they have been reinvigorated by the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020.

Our resource list is by no means exhaustive and we do not presume to know about everything that exists on collective memory or monuments. We hope these may inspire our community of learners to dive deeper, think critically about these issues, and continue the dialogue with others.

Please address your questions and/or feedback to Dr. Thuy Vo Dang and Dr. Ying Zhang.