Memory, Responsibility and Transformation

Conversations with students at the University of Virginia.

Created in response to the white supremacist attacks in Charlottesville on August 11th and 12th, 2017, this ongoing project challenges UVA students to work with visting fellows from Germany and UVA faculty to consider how societies teach and memorialize the past. Through art, activism, and scholarship, students address difficult chapters of history from slavery and segregation in the United States to colonialism, genocide, and dictatorship in Germany. This initiative also provides students and the wider Charlottesville community an opportunity to engage in constructive dialogue on the topic of historical inequality, injustice, and responsibility.

Co-sponsored by the Center for German Studies and the Collective Response: Moving Forward Fund at the University of Virginia.

Personally, I believe that the purpose of history is to help us learn for the future.
Walter, UVA Class of 2021
UVA must not ignore its racist roots if it hopes to understand and correct the current climate.
David, UVA Class of 2020
When I think about UVA, I think about a resilient community, not one of fear and shame.
Audrey, UVA Class of 2018

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Whatever that was, that’s not my home, that’s not my UVA, that’s not my college town.
Lauren, UVA Class of 2020
I understand that it’s hard to change things and it’s easier to erase them. But I think you can’t do that.
Katie, UVA Class of 2019
You can’t really move forward without knowing the true story of your past.
Pasuth, UVA Class of 2019

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We don’t live in a black and white world where everything is a textbook straight answer. We are human beings, and there is always a gray zone, never a fine line.
Ryan, Current UVA Student
We believe the contrast of the images separates the two movements in viewers' minds. It puts white supremacists in the dark, as in the past, and the counter-protesters in the light, representing the future.
Gabrielle, Chris, Catie, and Ryann, Current UVA Students

2017 Visiting Fellows from Germany

UVA Faculty

Böll Staff

In Partnership With: