Saturday, October 14, 2006

My Long Absence

I have not posted in over ten weeks for several reasons. First, I was overcome by laziness and inertia. Secondly, school started again and things got hectic. Thirdly, I didn't think my thoughts would be that interesting since I was no longer doing research in the trenches.

But then I realized that I don't blog for you. I blog for me. And blogging will help me organize my thoughts and will help me write a better thesis.

Let me tell you where I'm at. My thesis topic gets ever smaller by the day. Despite spending the bulk of my time this summer in Atlanta, I have decided to abandon the Atlanta bit for now. I'm going to focus solely on Richmond.

The question my research seeks to answer is: How has the recent radicalization in the SCV impacted the physical landscape of Richmond. For now I am focusing on three incidents: the erection of the Arthur Ashe statue, the controversey over the Lincoln memorial at Tredegar, and the recent funding crisis at the Museum of the Confederacy.

I hope that this thesis will touch upon the role of public spaces in determining public memory. I will also be addressing the role of race in power in determining the historical record.

I realize that all of this probably sounds like academic mumbo-jumbo right now. Hopefully as I get writing I can flesh out these ideas, and then distill them in a bloggable way.


posted by Sarah @ 11:23 PM