The Memory Project studies how memory is produced and reproduced and seeks to participate in and catalyze that process through support for educational initiatives and production of media and the arts, as well as through public history and commemorative events.
Conversations
Listen to Dr. Schmidt Bold Dominion talking about how Has “Unite The Right” Changed Virginia Politics
ViewOur work is forward-facing and applied in nature, bringing together theoretical investigation of the politics of memory with direct engagement with its real-world effects.
Photo credit: Sanjay Suchak
Arguments
Read Director Schmidt’s op-ed exploring the ways post-war Germans’ redress of trauma and memorialization were aligned with the aim of revitalizing democracy
ViewAt the center the work of the Memory Project is the question of how to address historical trauma
The Memory Project is rooted in projects centered on Charlottesville, which in the past years has become a pivotal space in defining and shaping broader debates about memory in the United States.
Film.
Memory Project artist-in-residence Micah Ariel Watson’s gospel-infused short films 40th & State and Barky’s
Conversations
Watch “Marching toward emancipation: Commemorating the arrival of Union troops in Charlottesville,” celebrating Liberation and Freedom Day.
More
Courses
Race, Charlottesville, And The Making Of Public Memory: The Memory Project post-docs developed a new undergraduate course for the Spring 2021. Click below to view the students' projects:
ViewThe Memory Project is part of the University of Virginia’s Democracy Initiative in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and is partially funded by the Mellon Foundation. It promotes research, curriculum development, and public engagement to address issues of public memory, memory conflict, and memory politics in the wake of the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville in 2017.
Read Director Schmidt’s opinion piece on the “moral risks of hazardous statue disposal”
Memory Project Event
Join the Memory Project for its virtual launch event featuring Susan Neiman, author of Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil, moderated by Washington Post columnist Michele Norris. Register here
Freedom and Liberation Day Event
NBC29 featured the "Marching Toward Emancipation" event with Memory Project director Schmidt in its coverage of Freedom and Liberation Day.
Spirit and Struggle: Films
The Memory Project hosted "Landmarks of Black Sacred Song" virtual screening of films by artist-in-residence, Micah Ariel Watson (UVA '18) and a discussion with Prof. Ashon Crawley.
Jalane Schmidt/MSA panel
The Memory Project's Jalane Schmidt will be presenting the paper, "'Faithful Negroes' and Rebel Slaves in State Memorialization: Southern U.S. and Revolutionary Cuban Case Studies," at the Memory Studies Association's Inaugural Event Roundtable: “Monuments & Memory Politics”
Jalane Schmidt on Contested "Memories"
Join the Memory Project's Jalane Schmidt as she addresses the question of what to do with Confederate monuments. Register free here to listen to the event, Contested "Memories": A Conversation on Monuments, Memorials, and the Lost Cause in Public Space, supported by the UVA President's Commission on the University in the Age of Segregation.
What Happens After? A Conversation about Monuments, Memory, and this Moment
The Memory Project's Prof. Jalane Schmidt will be discussing topics and issues to consider in the aftermath of the removal of Confederate symbols for UVA A&S's "Between the Columns" on October 7, at 7:00pm. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/between-the-columns-with-kevin-gaines-carol...
Protesters rally in Oxford for removal of Cecil Rhodes statue
Black Lives Matter protesters in Belgium want statues of colonialist King Léopold II to come down
Pages
