The recent Black Lives Matter protests and debates around Confederate statues have shown the importance of memorials as representations of historical narratives. How certain histories are immortalised or elided, and indeed how Americans live with, and in the shadow of, such symbols, remains a provocative line of inquiry. What does it mean to cast history in iron and stone? What can be learned, or unlearned, by the American relationship to the icon, emblem, and memorial?

This December, guest editor Anne Stokes will be running a special series focused on historic U.S memorials and popular memory. Anne invites contributions from postgraduate students and ECRs on any aspect of memorials, memory, or the intersection of the two in North America and is open to a range of proposals. Final articles will be between 700-1200 words following the guidelines on our website. We are looking for well-informed, concise analysis that is accessible to a wide readership.

All articles will be published in December 2020.

Deadlines for the process are as follows:

5th November – Abstract proposals of 150-200 words due. Outcomes decided by following week.

20th November 2020 – First article draft due

1st December 2020 – Final article due (deadline may be flexible dependent on decided publication date)

Topics of interest may include but are certainly not limited to:

• Evocation of popular memory and “heroic” narratives
• American war and military memorials
• Protest and memorials
• African American memory and memorials
• Historic memorials devoted to marginalized groups
• Grassroots movements to create memorials
• Museology and museum curation
• Other physical sites of memory

All questions should be directed to Anne Stokes at anne.stokes@manchester.ac.uk