Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Born in 1879 in Oologah, Indian Territory, Will Rogers, a Cherokee, became an international celebrity before his death in 1935. His multifaceted career adds complexity to American Indian identities in the early twentieth century and ways that Rogers worked to subvert dominant representations of Natives.

Rogers is also Oklahoma’s Favorite Son. Despite the ways Oklahomans dote on him, however, most Americans do not recognize his name. While there are several explanations for this case of cultural amnesia, this paper focuses on the ways the state of Oklahoma and the Memorial Museum dedicated to his memory create a particular Rogers that is relegated to a past no longer relevant. What makes Will Rogers such a useful and suitable symbol for the image Oklahoma wants to convey? This paper uses this state-supported museum to elucidate Oklahoma’s Will Rogers.

I attempt to explain why Rogers’ mixed-race character is central to Oklahoma—based on an overarching reputation it builds for itself—and why such appropriation affects depictions of Rogers’ ethnicity and celebrity at local and national levels. By exploring Oklahoma culture and examining several striking details of the museum, it is possible to better understand the ways the construction of meaning for a particular place affects the ways ethnicity, history, celebrity, and power are represented in a museum setting and beyond.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Since the beginning of the 1990s Israel's media map has changed drastically with the introduction of multi-channel commercial electronic media. Within this context, this research explored the memory narratives offered by Israel's leading commercial television channel on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day
The findings show that the characters that stand at the center of most nonnews items aired by channel 2 are clearly Holocaust victims. At the same time, through all 12 examined evenings not even one item focused on the fate of a victim of Nazi persecutions that is not Jewish. In terms of events that stand at the center of the narratives the most salient themes were the persecution and annihilation of Jews; the victims' survival efforts; and post-war commemoration of the memory of the Holocaust. In contrast, none of the items dealing with events that occurred during the war focused on armed resistance against the Nazi perpetrators.
An overview of channel 2's broadcasts on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day reveals the channel's lack of will, or inability to work Holocaust Memorial Day into its well known and extremely successful broadcasting formats and formulas. Hence, it seems as though the people who have shaped channels 2's Holocaust Memorial Day programming through the years assume that the best way to accumulate the symbolic capital that could be gained through broadcasting on that evening is to air programs that are perceived as utterly unrelated to channel 2.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Previous research details the role of a memorial as not merely a commemoration of the dead, but as a “transformation” through experience for the living who visit it. The process by which a memorial is conceptualized-- whose vision will overpower the others when there are multiple views of what a visitor to the memorial should experience-- is of primary significance in understanding collective memory and collective behavior. In addition, the level of democracy and agreement in the process of deciding on a proper memorial can depend upon the context of the event that is being memorialized. Content analysis was used to examine print news sources in New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC in the year following the terrorist attacks of September 11. Several narratives for memorial “themes” were discovered; support was found for five narratives from Edward Linenthal, who studied the Oklahoma City bombing (Progressive, Redemptive, Toxic, Traumatic, and Patriotic). An additional 11 narratives that emerged from this research do not fit precisely into any of his categories (Commercialization, Defiance, Dogmatic, Educational, Historical, Idealization, Inspirational, Justice, Perseverance, Sacred, and Unity). The sources of the narratives were categorized as (1) politicians or public figures, (2) journalists and editors, and (3) citizens. Frequently used narratives varied by source, victims, and location, indicating that the amount of historical distance from an event is also relevant in considering the use of narratives, as well as the event’s acuteness or lack thereof.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: While sociological analyses of collective memory are commonplace, a definition of the key concept is undertheorized. Implicit in most collective memory research is the assumption that collective memory is only manifested in institutionalized objects. These analyses conflate the production of the object—the evolution of the object within, and constrained by, institutional and organizational forms—and the object’s reception—its representativeness of the memory of a given population. To substantiate these claims, I examine current definitions of collective memory and the production/reception conflation as found in the literature on Holocaust collective memory. To reconcile these assumptions, I propose a culture and cognition conception of collective memory. I argue that collective memory is not an institutionalized object, per se, but an interactive process manifested in supraindividually located memory schemata. The interaction process here is a binary one: 1) the cognitive interaction between culturally related individuals, and 2) a conceptual interaction between social agents and institutional forms. Collective memory is often manifested in institutionalized objects and thus can become part of structure through systematic typification—it can be produced. But it also naturally stems from social structure through the interaction of individuals with other institutionalized collective memory objects—it is received.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Regime change is a moment when states make fundamental decisions concerning their past and what to do with the monuments, memorials, sacred places and other symbols of past regimes. These decisions both reflect and shape post-conflict peacebuilding. In some cases, such as the former Soviet Union and the French Revolution, the answer is mainly removal or destruction and signaled a break form the past. In South Africa removal and destruction have been used very little. Rather the post-Apartheid South African government has emphasized two strategies of transformation as part of post-conflict peacebuilding: appropriation, meaning associating the older holidays, symbolic places and buildings with the new regime's practices and institutions, and modification in which the older symbolic locations and events are redefined in ways that are more cultural and less political so that they are compatible with South Africa's current self-definition as the rainbow nation. In addition, South Africa has constructed a variety of new symbolic places where the story of oppression, struggle, and triumph are told. The key to these policies is the development of an emotionally meaningful, more inclusive, non-racial narrative that both addresses the traumas of the past and defines a common future for its diverse population. Finally, the South African experience is placed in the context of other peacebuilding efforts.