Roman Rain Tree discusses on his campaign to rename the community of Squaw Valley (Now Yokuts Valley) Interview conducted by Anna-Kirstie Ross on March 24, 2023. The term ‘Squaw’ (hereafter Sq___) is widely considered as an offensive, derogatory, racist and misogynistic word used to refer to Native American women. In… Read More
An interview with Kate Rogers, the Executive Director of Alamo Trust, Inc (ATI), the private 501(c)3 non-profit organisation in Texas that manages day-to-day operations and staff at the Alamo. Interview conducted by Ngoc Tram Nguyen, IHJR- EuroClio Research intern, Summer 2022; Harvard College Class of 2022 When Kate Rogers took… Read More
In 1932, German citizens gathered for the dedication of the Kolonialelefant in Bremen. The Bremen Colonial Society created this monument in memory of the German soldiers who died in the German colonies during the First World War. As well as to glorify colonialism and bolster the neo-colonial movement (after… Read More
‘Honor history.’ Those were the words graffitied beside a toppled Madre Luz – or “Mother Light” – in Wyman Park Dell, Baltimore. Only a few days earlier, Pablo Machioli’s popular sculpture – which depicts a pregnant black woman, fist raised defiantly in the air – had been hoisted by protestors… Read More
‘Churchill was a racist,’ read the hastily-daubed paint on the bottom of Parliament Square’s towering effigy to one of Britain’s most revered wartime icons, sparking fierce debate and controversy over how the UK views its complex and difficult past. Churchill’s statue, having been viewed for 50 years by most as… Read More
Over the past few months, the Contested Histories team has been working with Carlos Marcelino to develop our new logo! We are over the moon with how it has turned out and it represents a crucial evolution for the Contested Histories project. In this post, we share our brainstorming,… Read More
There is no monument more contested in Lima than El Ojo que Llora (The Eye That Cries). Almost from the beginning it has been opposed and vandalized. A few years ago, the serenity and beauty of the area, in one of the main parks in the city, was compromised when… Read More
The IHJR and the Contested Histories team mourn the loss of our dear friend and stalwart supporter, Advisory Board member, Edward Mortimer, CMG, a Distinguished Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, who passed away on June 18, 2021, at the age of 77. Edward had a long, distinguished career as… Read More
Smartphones and social media can transfigure a single, horrific event into something malleable and replayable. One might think the contemporary public (hyper)space would render more traditional forms of political communication obsolete. But grieving for George Floyd and with the victims of racism everywhere meant reconceiving that public space. Muralling –… Read More
When Issabella Orlando joined the Contested Histories team for a week-long research assignment in December 2020, she already had an extensive project on contested heritage under her belt. While studying full-time at Oxford University, Issabella wrote and directed the short documentary ‘The Return Address: Where Does Heritage Belong?’. The film… Read More
There is a strange irony in Exeter City Council’s recent reversal of their decision to relocate a statue of nineteenth-century military leader, General Sir Redvers Buller; the man who had already earned himself the nickname ‘Reverse Buller’ for his garish military tactics and organisational failings. On January 12th, 2021, it… Read More
After a storm comes the calm. When applied to “storms” of popular protest fuelled by contestations over controversial legacies of the past in public spaces – specifically those raised by the Black Lives Matter Movement concerning colonialism, slavery, and racism in the wake of George Floyd’s killing on 25th May 2020… Read More