U.Va. Professor Dell Upton to Give Public Talk on New Civil Rights Monuments

Oct. 13, 2006 -- University of Virginia professor Dell Upton will give a public talk, “New Mythic Geographies of the American South,” on Thursday, Oct. 26, at 5:30 p.m. in Campbell Hall, Room 160. The talk is free and open to the public.

Upton will discuss the new generation of civil-rights and African-American history monuments in the South, with particular attention to the ways that they mesh (or not) with older monumental landscapes and to the ways the new monuments represent divergent agendas on the part of their builders. He will focus most closely on the monuments associated with the Selma, Ala. Voting Rights Campaign of 1964-65. The talk is drawn form Upton’s research on African-American history monuments for a book on civil-rights memorials and urban politics in the American South.

Upton is the David A. Harrison Professor of Anthropology and Architecture, with appointments in the School of Architecture and the department of anthropology in the College of Arts & Sciences. He studies the material world as an expression of culture with a focus on architectural and cultural landscapes. His recent research has focused on urban life and culture. He has published articles and book on a wide range of topics including colonial Virginia churches, New Urbanism, heritage tourism and architecture in the United States.

Upton’s talk is part of the Carl H. and Martha S. Lindner Center for the Arts, McIntire Department of Art lecture series.

For more information contact Sylvia New Strawn at (434) 924-6123.