Realms of Memory

Few scholars have influenced memory studies as much as Jeff Olick.  Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Virginia, Charlotte, Jeff was co-founder and past co-president of the Memory Studies Association, the leading association for this burgeoning, interdisciplinary field of studies. His books on Germany offer pathbreaking insights into how the country’s political elites attempted to master the Nazi and Holocaust past.  The Politics of Regret, has become a reference point for explaining why countries around the globe take up the challenge of confronting shameful histories.  From the The Collective Memory Reader to the six volume, A Cultural History of Memory, Jeff has helped compile a cannon of readings and an expansive history of collective memory.  A conversation with Jeff Olick about memory studies, the politics of memory in Germany, and the prospects for the politics of regret in the United States, next on the August 4th episode of the Realms of Memory podcast.

Since the 1990s countries around the world have been building a new type of history museum.  Rather than glorifying the nation, these museums are purpose-built to spotlight the darkest and most shameful chapters in national histories.  They are inspired by a post-Holocaust, “never again,” human rights memorialization culture anchored in the belief that nations can and should learn from past wrongs.  Until recently, the United States lagged behind this trend.  Few American museums offered a critical perspective on the nation’s history of racial violence. Sociologist Amy Sodaro, an expert on museums and the politics of past violence, offers her insights on three new U.S. museums that feature the history of slavery and racial violence.  This is the subject of her recent book, Lifting the Shadow: Reshaping Memory, Race and Slavery in U.S. Museums.

Despite the frenzied debates about what history we should be teaching in the United States, until recently most African American and mainstream history museums have continued to tell an uplifting story of racial progress and achievement.  The United States has lagged behind museums in many other parts of the world which now give greater attention to recognizing past wrongs and injustices.  In the July 7th episode I’ll be talking with Sociology Professor Amy Sodaro from the Borough of Manhattan Community College in the City University of New York about three new museums that feature the history of slavery and racial injustice.  This is the subject of her latest book, Lifting the Shadow: Reshaping Memory, Race and Slavery in U.S. Museums.

How can we understand a problem so vast and complex as homelessness?  After spending her career writing about the stereotyped and misunderstood, writer Alison Owings was eager to take on the challenge.  While this was an omnipresent reality in her hometown of San Francisco, Alison had no idea where to begin.  She found her answer on one of the Tenderloin Walking Tours named after the neighborhood with the city’s largest homeless population.  The guide and founder of the tour, Del Seymour, became the subject of a decade-long project to tell the story of the homeless through the memories of one man.  Del’s story is one of triumph and redemption.  Del went from spending nearly two decades living on the streets of San Francisco to becoming an advocate for the homeless.  First, first through the creation of the Tenderloin Walking Tours, then through the founding of Code Tenderloin, Del has drawn attention to the plight of the homeless while helping thousands from his community find jobs and a new life.  In this episode, a conversation with Alison Owings about her book Mayor of the Tenderloin: Del Seymour’s Journey from Living on the Streets to Fighting Homelessness in San Francisco.

The problem of homelessness in the United States has reached epic proportions.  But how can we understand such a complex issue affecting so many different kinds of people?  Writer Alison Owings decided to take on the challenge by exploring the memories of one man, Del Seymour.   Del’s story is one of triumph and redemption.  He went from living on the streets of San Francisco to becoming known as Mayor of the Tenderloin, the city’s neighborhood with the largest homeless population.  Del earned this title not just because of the jobs he created through the Tenderloin Walking Tours, but because of thousands he helped to build new lives through the work of Code Tenderloin.  Join me on June 2nd for a conversation with Alison Owings about her book Mayor of the Tenderloin: Del Seymour’s Journey from Living on the Streets to Fighting Homelessness in San Francisco.