Truth-telling, renaming and removing: the experience of American Universities

The VGCC Past & Present Cluster with History of University Life Event

Truth-telling, renaming and removing: the experience of American Universities

Associate Professor David Smith | United States Studies Centre & USYD
In-person | Wednesday, November 19 | 4:00pm - 5:15pm 
Vere Gordon Childe Centre Boardroom

American institutions of higher education are reckoning with a past built on the profits of the slave trade. David Smith explores the recent history of truth-telling in the USA, focusing on the debates around the renaming of buildings and other aspects of the built environment in universities. As popular and political movements against ‘woke culture’ gather, he also examines the potential consequences of this backlash against renaming and reckoning in the USA.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Associate Professor David Smith is jointly appointed between the United States Studies Centre and the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney. His research examines conflicts over religion and culture in American, Australian and international politics.

Chaired by Julia Horne, Professor of History and University Historian, University of Sydney

This seminar is the first of a series on the University of Sydney Truth-Telling project, a Vice-Chancellor’s initiative. The seminar series is co-hosted by Past and Present, a research cluster of the Vere Gordon Childe Centre, and the History of University Life Research Seminar in Higher Education in the School of Humanities, University of Sydney.

The History of University Life Podcast series include:

Speaking of History https://speaking-of-history.transistor.fm/

Speaking of History is a podcast which explores stories hidden within the recently digitized cassette tapes of interviews conducted in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s with former University of Sydney staff and students.

Whose University? Whose Culture? https://history-university-life.transistor.fm/

Three podcasts, three views on university culture. Julia Horne talks with eminent university strategists Lisa Jackson-Pulver, Jennifer Barrett and Tim Soutphommasane about their own experiences in bringing about cultural change. The interviews form the basis of chapters in Australian Universities - A Conversation about Public Good , published by Sydney University Press.

Image: Protests against the Silent Sam statue on the Campus of the University of North Carolina. [Photo: Martin Kraft (photo.martinkraft.com), CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons