Dear Colleague:

I invite you to apply for our week-long workshop, War, Death, and Remembrance: The Memory and Commemoration of the American Civil War. Our workshop will focus on introducing community college faculty to the advantages and insights that stem from interpreting the American Civil War through the lens of memory. 

Throughout the 140 years since the war, Americans have vigorously remembered, memorialized and commemorated the conflict, as individuals, as a region, and as a nation. The study of that historical memory allows us to see the patterns of change in the war’s meaning and interpretation. It also compels us to recognize the continuing relevance of the war today. 

To better explore these dynamics, our workshop will engage the memory of the war in a variety of ways. We have invited leading scholars of the topic to guide our classroom sessions. We will investigate the differing patterns of memorialization on our historic campus and nearby civic and military cemeteries. And most significantly, we will explore the confluence of history and memory at Shiloh National Military Park and the National Park Service’s newest Civil War site, the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center. Walking the storied grounds of Shiloh and Corinth battlefields, and understanding how these grounds have been preserved, memorialized, and interpreted, will be the centerpiece of our week.

If you have any questions, please email me at umneh@olemiss.edu. I very much look forward to hearing from you, and receiving your applications.

Sincerely,

John R. Neff