Commemoration and Preservation

Catalog description

How and why do we commemorate, celebrate, memorialize, and preserve the ?important stuff? of history? How have our methods of doing this changed over time? In this course we will discuss a variety of methods and theories for commemoration and preservation, their historical development and the future of the fields, how American national memory differs from that in other countries and why, and some of the recent big moments of commemoration and preservation in the last decade, and how that has changed the landscape, but literally and figuratively. This seminar-style course introduces students to a wide range of ?classic? and contemporary readings on the topics of commemoration and preservation. Students are required to participate in weekly discussions of the assigned readings and to post answers to previously distributed discussion questions on the class web sites. Students will also be responsible for directing class discussion at least once during the semester. The course also requires students to complete several formal written assignments including a commemorative site report, an article review, and a moderate-length formal research paper on a topic of the student?s own choosing.