WRI 101-A (Fall 2023) - Scrapbooks to Statues

We celebrate the past in many ways, in baby books that document first teeth, steps and words, in yearbooks that commemorate school years, in eulogies and tombstones that memorialize loved ones, and in statues that signify historical importance.  Scrapbooking or creating a digital album about a recent trip may seem straightforward. Yet, actions of remembrance also generate controversy.  For example, a recent obituary published about a family pet in a local newspaper inspired an irate letter to the editor.  Meanwhile, countries have enacted memory laws, which mandate state-approved interpretations of crucial historical events and promote specific narratives about the past, and debates rage about how the past should be remembered, which we have witnessed through struggles over historical monuments.

In this WRI course, we will explore key questions: how do we record our own pasts?  What is at stake when we engage in these activities, as individuals and as cultures?  Through three major projects, we will reflect on examples of personal commemoration, conduct archival research on college scrapbooking, explore historical monuments in the town of Davidson and on Davidson’s campus, and enter into current debates on historical control and commemoration.