The Power of Place: History, Memory, and the Work of Democracy
What role can historic places play in shaping the conversations we need today? Drawing inspiration from Reparative Histories: Local Democracy and the Power of Place in the American Landscape, this keynote conversation will explore how historic sites can become spaces for meaningful dialogue about the past, the communities we inhabit today, and the futures we hope to build.
Dr. Louis P. Nelson, an architectural historian whose work examines the built environments of the Atlantic world and landscapes shaped by enslavement, and Dr. Angel Adams Parham, a sociologist whose scholarship explores race, place, memory, and civic solidarity, are co-editors of the book. They will be joined by Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, Director of the Edward W. Kane and Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History at the Newport Historical Society, and Rebecca Bertrand, Executive Director of the Newport Historical Society. Together, these four scholars and public historians bring perspectives spanning sociology, anthropology, archaeology, architectural history, historic preservation, museum interpretation, and the public humanities to a rich conversation about the relationship between place, history, memory, and civic life.