Resignification Archives - Contested Histories

Hung Lau and the Politics of Memory in Post-Handover Hong Kong

Contested Histories Admin — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 10:00:00 +0000

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Van Heutz Indië-Nederland Monument in Amsterdam

Contested Histories Admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Since its unveiling in 1935, the ‘Van Heutsz’ Monument has faced controversy surrounding the legacy of Dutch colonialism in Indonesia, attributed to General Jo van Heutsz. The monument has survived defacement, two bomb attacks, and years of decay. In 2001, in response to increasing scrutiny, the Amsterdam Oud-Zuid district council renamed the site to ‘Monument Indië-Nederland.’ This case study examines the transition from honouring Van Heutsz to commemorating colonisation in the context of recent acknowledgements from King Willem-Alexander and a continued social debate on the legacy of slavery and colonialism.

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UCL Eugenics Inquiry in London, England

Contested Histories Admin — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 14:13:43 +0000

In 1912, the First International Eugenics Conference was hosted in London. The conference was dedicated to Francis Galton, whose legacy with eugenics continues to be associated with University College London. The legacy of Galton and other eugenic scientists remains for many a symbol of racism, imperialism and inequality. This study examines the decision-making process of UCL to modify the historical legacy of eugenics, which until recently remained visually present in UCL buildings and facilities. The case study examines how different academic actors, including university professors, students and administrators, responded to official attempts to come to terms with UCL’s eugenic legacy.

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Marshal Tito Square in Zagreb

Contested Histories Admin — Sun, 02 Jun 2024 22:00:00 +0000

The Republic of Croatia Square in Zagreb has been renamed numerous times since the 20th century. Although its geographical place name sometimes referred to it, it was most well-known as the Square of Marshal Josip Broz Tito, the leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After Croatia’s independence in 1991, the perception of the communist era and Tito’s legacy began to change and aroused controversy. Since 2006, the group Circle for the Square has organised regular protests to urge city officials to rename it. In 2017, Milan Bandić, the former mayor of Zagreb, promised to conduct a referendum on the issue. However, shortly after this proposition, he agreed to rename the square as a part of a political compromise with the right-wing party, Independents for Croatia, sparking a major controversy.

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Green Bridge in Vilnius

Contested Histories Admin — Sun, 05 May 2024 22:00:00 +0000

The Green Bridge is located in the city centre of Vilnius, Lithuania, and since its rebuilding following the Second World War, it was decorated with four groups of statues created by multiple Lithuanian artists in the Socialist realism style. Discussions about the statues split Lithuanian society when some groups advocated keeping them due to their representation of the Soviet past, which marked half a century of the country’s history. Meanwhile, others strictly condemned the monument’s existence, which glorified a period marked with pain and suffering for the Lithuanian nation. After debates that lasted for decades, the remedy was made by the Vilnius City Municipality to remove the statues in 2015.

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Renaming Calhoun College in Yale University

Contested Histories Admin — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 10:00:00 +0000

In 2015, Yale President Peter Salovey raised the issue of the namesake of Calhoun College during his address to incoming freshmen. The building had been named after a supporter of slavery, prompting university-wide debate about the value of changing the name of the residential building. While initially against a name change, Salovey was met with backlash over this decision, resulting in his establishment of a commission to investigate the value of name changes at Yale. Eventually, the building was renamed in 2017 in honour of Grace Murray Hopper. This case study explores this process and whether or not this type of commission could potentially serve as an example for other institutional contexts.

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Omarska Camp in Prijedor

Contested Histories Admin — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Omarska Concentration Camp in Prijedor is notorious for being the site of the 1992 Prijedor
Massacre during the Bosnian War; it featured prominently in several trials for the perpetration
of international crimes undertaken by the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former
Yugoslavia. Since 2004, numerous attempts at commemoration for the victims of the camp
have been attempted but have been met with an impasse given the tense post-conflict
realities in the region. This case study explores the role of commemoration in transitional
societies and how the lack of official action can result in victims groups taking on the issue of
commemoration without permission from official authorities.

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Manzanar Historic Site in California

Contested Histories Admin — Mon, 08 May 2023 10:00:00 +0000

During World War II, the U.S. Government incarcerated thousands of Japanese Americans in so-called War Relocation Centres around the country. One of them was the Manzanar Relocation Center, which at its peak, housed around 11,000 detainees. Incarcerated behind barbed wire and guard towers, Japanese American families lost their freedom which disrupted family dynamics and led to the 1942 Manzanar Riots. After Manzanar closed in November 1945, Japanese Americans lived with deep trauma, a sense of shame, and an unwillingness to tell their stories. Decades later, incarceration survivors and descendants led the effort to preserve Manzanar as a site for healing and learning. This case analyses the controversies around the memorialisation of this part of American history that was overlooked for decades.

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Squaw Valley in California

Paula — Mon, 01 May 2023 15:10:13 +0000

The term ‘squaw’ (hereafter sq___) is widely considered an offensive, derogatory, racist and misogynistic word to refer to Native American women. In 2021, following the renaming of the Sq___ Valley ski resort in the unincorporated populated place in Olympic Valley in Placer County, California, to ‘Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort’, a petition was launched to change the name of the town of Sq___ Valley in Fresno County California by local Indigenous resident Roman Rain Tree. After two years of campaigning at the local, state, and national levels, the movement led by Rain Tree succeeded in getting the town’s name changed to Yokuts Valley in 2023. However, this campaign created serious division within the community, and many people are still opposed to the renaming.

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The Alamo. A Complex Historical Legacy

Contested Histories Admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 10:00:00 +0000

United States

By Ngoc Tram Nguyen

December 2022

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