RAPID: Memorialization and Community

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

This project focuses on understanding how a new memorial, the first of its kind, affects the immediate community surrounding it. Memorialization in the United States has been a growing trend over the past few decades. To date, there has been limited research on how memorials affect relationships between groups and how they affect the attitudes and behaviors of individuals. This project explores how the representation of past violence is interpreted and responded to by those who regularly interact with it. Nationally, the results will provide the opportunity to determine the role and use of memorialization in promoting positive intergroup relations. The project advances the nation's prosperity and welfare by helping us to understand better how the practice of memorialization mediates how our nation grapples with the darkest moments of its past. A two-wave longitudinal survey of the local city's residents will be used around the opening of a new memorial to capture a pre- and post- measure of social and political attitudes. The survey will be used to: (1) assess how the memorial affects the community and individuals socially, emotionally, and politically; (2) explore how the memorial's representation affects attitudes toward intergroup relations; (3) reveal how that individuals' social positions (i.e., race, class, gender, etc.) influence how they interpret and interact with the memorial; and, (4) explicitly measure social and geo-spatial effects of a physical representation of violence. Whether the results demonstrate a net positive or a net negative effect of the memorial, the research will highlight the impact on present identity representations and intergroup relations. Findings also will be useful to those involved in the opening and managing of such memorials, and those considering their construction. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.