Seminar 4: Archives in/of Place: Memory, Race, and Environmental Violence

Leaders: Megan Poole (The University of Texas at Austin), Ariel E. Seay (North Carolina State University), Diane Keeling (University of San Diego)

As climate change worsens extreme weather, drowns or burns entire towns, and threatens
the material existence of cultural and historical archives, scholars and historians ask:
what’s worth preserving? This seminar engages questions of preservation and archives
more generally to consider the selectivity of what is remembered, the practices that
conceal histories of racial, environmental, and social violence, as well as the rhetorical
practices that lead to such inequities in public memory. Following conversations that
examine preservation and memory practices in place, participants will attend to the
material, environmental, even geological elements that inform methodologies for resisting
social and racial violence. Ultimately, participants will engage the limits and affordances
of environments as archives, as there can be no justice without accounting for the
intersecting, sedimented forms of power layered over our landscapes. Through
experiences in special collections and a toxic tour with local environmental activists,
participants will ground theories of land, relations, and environmental/racial violence
through a local case study in Louisville: Rubbertown.

There will be no A/V equipment available in this seminar. The seminar leaders encourage participants to bring charged devices with their preferred hardware and software pre-loaded, especially for any participants who have accessibility needs. You should indicate any accessibility needs on your registration form.