With the renewed focus on monuments and memorials after 9/11 new questions are being raised and old ones revisited about how objects become memorialized or even de-memorialized. And while it is clear to us now that the monument's physical presence is always in jeopardy of disappearing, it is not as clear how a monument's meaning travels in and out of various conceptual spaces as the monument changes physical shape or adapts to the cultural ceremonies or power shifts within national states.

This volume of essays will address the larger problem of the monument under revision while also attending to the necessary local histories and meanings monuments necessarily engage. The volume will focus on monuments that have gone through this shift in meaning before 9/11 but will focus primarily on pre-9/11 monuments that have shifted in meaning after 9/11. How do ceremonies, power shifts, or changes to the monument's structure change the meaning of the monument? Are these changes intentional or not as calculated? How have local communities revised monuments so as to change their troubling history or made that history ironic through revision? How have the narratives growing out of 9/11 and the Iraq War changed the narrative of a specific monument?

Please send 400-700 word abstracts or inquiries to jdonica@siu.edu. Include your name and a brief professional biography. Please use 'Monument Collection' as the subject line.