Curated Borderlands: Race, Place, and Power in Sites of San Diego Public Memory
MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2023 | 3:00 PM | HG 1010 and Online
This talk represents a body of work at the intersections of History, Cultural Studies, and the Public Humanities. Paying special attention to how cultures make meaning through remembrance, particularly via national origin stories, this talk charts Dr. Collins' explorations of public remembrances of the American West through archival methods, ethnographic study, media production, and public history exhibition. Serving as a narrative throughline of the talk are connections between public memory, historical preservation, and evolving settler logics critical to understanding the making of race and place in California and the American West as an ongoing production capable of adapting to social change while still maintaining projects of power. From her manuscript which examines the evolving origin stories that structure popular retellings of California history through California’s most visited state park to her next project on the Black Pacific which shifts her focus on the politics of memorialized space from the land to the ocean, this research portfolio examines the cultural work of public history in making meaning, imagining a nation, and shaping adjacent notions of identity, power, and belonging in the process.
Caroline Collins
UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow
UC Irvine, Department of History