Evento

Profs & Pints: Monumental Controversies

Profs and Pints presents: Monumental Controversies, with Fred Bohrer, professor of art and archaeology at Hood College, art historian, and author of the website Monumental Anxiety: An Anti-Guide to the Monuments of Washington, D.C.

Even more than most cities, Washington, DC is filled with monuments and commemorative spaces, which generally serve mainly as a sort of backdrop of urban life. In the past few years, though, many public monuments in Washington and elsewhere have faced new scrutiny, criticism and even direct attack.

Chief among such controversies is the current battle over Confederate monuments, which can be found in every corner of the nation. In fact, Washington itself has a public, outdoor monument to a confederate general and KKK sympathizer--Albert Pike--disguising him as a poet and philosopher. But many other controversies also play out around monuments. Washington has several that bring up--sometimes mainly through their attempts at avoiding--questions of sexual orientation, disability, ideology, social class, and much more.

What is at stake in the new battle over monuments? How and why do monuments today have the power to inspire such vehement passions among both defenders and detractors? And just why are there so many monuments in the first place?

This talk is for anyone who has wondered about the prominent place of monuments in cities and towns, the nature of historical memory, and how things such as race, gender, sexuality, and cultural identity are inscribed in Americas public landscape. Along with tackling questions currently being raised about some monuments, it also will offer a larger historical perspective on the varieties of monuments and their development, and equip audience members with fundamental tools for understanding and analyzing monuments. Well look in detail at many nearby objects as well as other monuments throughout the country. Professor Bohrer has for more than two decades written books and articles examining how tangible objectspaintings, photographs, sculptures, ancient artifacts, museum displays and moreboth represent and obscure public histories. You'll walk out of his talk equipped to be a more astute tour guide for anyone who visits you this spring. (Advance tickets: $12. Doors: $15, save $2 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later. Please allow yourself time to place any orders and get seated and settled in.)