CFP: Public Memory, Race, and Heritage Tourism of Early America, Vol. 2
Edited by Cathy Rex (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire: rexcj@uwec.edu)
and Shevaun Watson (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: watsonse@uwm.edu)
We are soliciting scholarly essays (5,000-8,000 words) for inclusion in a follow-up volume to our edited collection, Public Memory, Race, and Heritage Tourism of Early America, published by Routledge as part of their New Directions in Tourism Analysis series in 2022. The original collection has been favorably reviewed in journals such as Early American Literature, The Quarterly Journal of Speech, and The Journal of Southern History; Routledge has subsequently expressed a keen interest in a follow-up collection.
Building on the first volume, we are seeking essays which will explore the ways early American sites, monuments, homes, museums, settlements, forts, etc. (from before about 1830) are marketed to contemporary audiences as authentic historical or heritage tourist experiences while often ignoring the complex racial dynamics that undergird their existence. This follow-up collection seeks to once again bring scholars together from various disciplines to analyze sites of historical and racial significance throughout the Americas (North and South) and the Caribbean in order to examine and unpack the complexities and tensions of representing history and memories in a popular, public way, especially when the very fact of a historic site is predicated on legacies of imperialism, racism, genocide, and oppression. We are interested in the work of both academic and public-facing scholars in areas of early America, Public History, Rhetoric, Geography, Heritage Studies, Museum Studies, Archives, etc.
We are especially interested in essays that consider the following:
• collaborative community development and engagement with heritage sites (particularly with marginalized groups whose histories may have been misrepresented or sanitized)
• public-facing humanities projects focused on cultural preservation or heritage tourism
• digital storytelling or virtual experiences that offer alternative perspectives on a site’s history and/or are more accessible to a wider range of people
• performance-based or role-playing experiences that contextualize and interpret a historical event or community milestone
• pedagogical approaches for teaching with and about heritage sites
Send 500-word abstracts and a brief biographical statement (100 words or less) to Cathy Rex, rexcj@uwec.edu by August 15, 2025. We will notify authors of accepted proposals by early October 2025. Completed essays will be due January 5, 2026.