Monuments, memorials, and legacies encompass the multiple ways in which individuals and societies remember their past and strive to be remembered, from the monumental complex of Stonehenge to the era of Twitter and Snapchat. Does our present shape the way we remember and memorialize the past or is it rather the memory of our past that influences our behavior today?

The conference aims to bring together scholars exploring various aspects of how oral and written stories, memorials, monuments, and museums present answers to the eternal human need to remember the past and leave a mark not to be forgotten.

Possible paper and panels topics include but are not limited to:

  • Monuments and memorials
  • Mausoleums and sites of memory
  • Collective, cultural, and national memory
  • Storytelling and the construction of collective narratives
  • Memory and cultural identity
  • Shrines, canonizations, and cults of saints
  • Anniversaries, legacies, and bequests
  • Oblivion and the destruction of sites of memory
  • Trauma, silence, and omission
  • Political history and counter-narratives
  • Remembering: from photography to Snapchat

A special session of panels and workshops will focus on INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGIES – possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • Digital Humanities
  • Role-Playing Games
  • Flipped Classroom
  • Experiential Learning

Optional tours of museums and other notable sites will be scheduled on Thursday afternoon and Sunday morning.

Please send an abstract and one-page vita to: mvhc.coordinator[at]gmail.com

We especially encourage the submission of organized panels and roundtables. Submissions for a panel must include three paper titles, abstracts, individual biographies and contact information, name of organizer, and (optional) chair and/or commentator. The presenters on a panel/roundtable must be from at least two different institutions.

The Society for Military History hosts panels and proposals for military topics - not necessarily related to the conference theme. Please send these to:smhatmvhc[at]gmail.com.

The MVHC accepts student proposals. Undergraduate students should submit a recommendation letter from a professor. Best graduate and undergraduate paper recipients receive cash awards from MVHC, the Society for Military History, and the Phi Alpha Theta Honor Society (for its members).