Concurrent Session 3-C

Location

Bryant Hall, Room 207

Start Date

15-3-2025 9:00 AM

End Date

15-3-2025 10:45 AM

Description

  • Why Do We Even Bother? History, Faith, Community, and the Metaphysical Imperative
    Kamarr A. W.-Richée, PhD student of Christian Ehtics and Public Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
    Why do we even bother building memorials as human beings? Is this merely an act of indoctrination, a massaging of egos and assuaging of sin, or does it speak to something deeper within the experience of humanity? In exploring the significance of the divine command to the Jewish people to memorialize crossing the Jordan river, the indispensable contribution of monuments to cultural formation and memory will be examined. The workshop will consist of considering passages from Hebrew scripture as well as quotes from notable public thinker James Baldwin, intercultural theologian Kosuke Koyama, temporal philosopher Robert Grudin, and revolutionary poet Czesław Miłosz in an examination of how the practice of public and private remembering through various means of memorialization are indispensable to the healthy creation and propagation of culture and community. Ultimately, the workshop will engage in a critique of this statement: There is no faith without history and no community without faith, and memorials serve as cornerstones to memory as they are an embodied response to the metaphysical imperative to remember.
  • Atlanta is Burning: (In)tangible Postmemory and the Call for a Queer Southern Memorial Center
    Eric Solomon, Instructor of English, University of Mississippi
    In their work on the queer past, queer studies scholars Christopher Castiglia and Christopher Reed demonstrate that memory is crafted in response to inadequacies in the present. In her work on memorial cultures and the concept of “postmemory,” memory studies scholar Marianne Hirsch argues that memories of traumatic events live on to mark the lives of those who were not there to experience them. In this presentation, I call for a new queer southern memorial center that would be located in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. This memorial center would respond to inadequacies in the present through the preservation of a site in the built environment of historical significance to the queer community in Atlanta at risk of destruction. This paper will discuss two potential dreamscape options for the center’s location, both designated “places in peril” according to the lexicon of historic preservation. Whether this dream becomes reality or not, both proposed sites could serve as a tangible memorial to lost LGBTQ+ southerners as well as a site of what I call “intangible postmemorial education” for younger generations who wish to learn about their past beyond the increasingly politicized and surveilled curricula of traditional spaces of education such as high schools, colleges, and universities. In this presentation, I would detail the historic context for each site, the larger arc of Atlanta’s queer past, and the specifics of previous such sites in the city.
  • Chair: Cynthia Pury, Professor of Psychology, Clemson University

Relational Format

Conference proceeding

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Mar 15th, 9:00 AM Mar 15th, 10:45 AM

Concurrent Session 3-C

Bryant Hall, Room 207

  • Why Do We Even Bother? History, Faith, Community, and the Metaphysical Imperative
    Kamarr A. W.-Richée, PhD student of Christian Ehtics and Public Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
    Why do we even bother building memorials as human beings? Is this merely an act of indoctrination, a massaging of egos and assuaging of sin, or does it speak to something deeper within the experience of humanity? In exploring the significance of the divine command to the Jewish people to memorialize crossing the Jordan river, the indispensable contribution of monuments to cultural formation and memory will be examined. The workshop will consist of considering passages from Hebrew scripture as well as quotes from notable public thinker James Baldwin, intercultural theologian Kosuke Koyama, temporal philosopher Robert Grudin, and revolutionary poet Czesław Miłosz in an examination of how the practice of public and private remembering through various means of memorialization are indispensable to the healthy creation and propagation of culture and community. Ultimately, the workshop will engage in a critique of this statement: There is no faith without history and no community without faith, and memorials serve as cornerstones to memory as they are an embodied response to the metaphysical imperative to remember.
  • Atlanta is Burning: (In)tangible Postmemory and the Call for a Queer Southern Memorial Center
    Eric Solomon, Instructor of English, University of Mississippi
    In their work on the queer past, queer studies scholars Christopher Castiglia and Christopher Reed demonstrate that memory is crafted in response to inadequacies in the present. In her work on memorial cultures and the concept of “postmemory,” memory studies scholar Marianne Hirsch argues that memories of traumatic events live on to mark the lives of those who were not there to experience them. In this presentation, I call for a new queer southern memorial center that would be located in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. This memorial center would respond to inadequacies in the present through the preservation of a site in the built environment of historical significance to the queer community in Atlanta at risk of destruction. This paper will discuss two potential dreamscape options for the center’s location, both designated “places in peril” according to the lexicon of historic preservation. Whether this dream becomes reality or not, both proposed sites could serve as a tangible memorial to lost LGBTQ+ southerners as well as a site of what I call “intangible postmemorial education” for younger generations who wish to learn about their past beyond the increasingly politicized and surveilled curricula of traditional spaces of education such as high schools, colleges, and universities. In this presentation, I would detail the historic context for each site, the larger arc of Atlanta’s queer past, and the specifics of previous such sites in the city.
  • Chair: Cynthia Pury, Professor of Psychology, Clemson University