How do local, national, and transnational institutions deploy memory and forgetting to form and reform local identities and cultures? What types of recollection are privileged? How do race, religion, gender, class, immigration status, etc. mediate these recollections? How are memories implicated in decisions about the political, cultural, and economic landscape of St. Louis? How is memory an element of social responsibility or marginalization? How might alternative memories promote the flourishing of the common good?

This conference is interdisciplinary and encourages connections among academic disciplines, including cultural studies, theology, urban studies, literature, history, architecture, religion, philosophy, fine arts, social science, law, psychology, political science, and others.
Topics might include but are not at all limited to:
· Memorials, monuments, tourist and historic sites
· The Church's role in forming economic and social institutions
· Immigrants, past and present
· Suburbanization and urban space
· Activism and social justice
· Religious imagination
· Faith-based struggles for justice
· Physical environment, landscape, population decline
· Sports and economics
· Study of specific neighborhoods/groups in St. Louis

The conference takes place October 21-23, 2010. Deadline for abstracts is extended to June 1, 2010. We will notify accepted paper and panel submitters by early July.

Please send 500-word abstracts to:
Corinne Taff, 314.719.3640
Fontbonne University
Interdisciplinary Studies and Center for Migration, Memory, and Identity
FBMemorySTL@gmail.com

Coordinating Committee:
· Ben Moore, Ph.D., English and Communication
· Randy Rosenberg, Ph.D., History, Philosophy and Religion
· Corinne Taff, M.A., M.F.A., Interdisciplinary Studies
· Mary Beth Gallagher, Ph.D., Mission Integration
· Jasna Meyer, Ph.D., English and Communication
· Patrick McCarthy, M.S., M.A., Medical Center Library, Saint Louis University
· Jamie Wagman, M.A., Interdisciplinary Studies

Symposium highlights:
Symposium begins at 7:00 pm on Thursday night, October 21 with the Keynote Address by Dr. Shawn Copeland, PhD (Theology, Boston College).
On Friday night, Robert Archibald, PhD, (President, Missouri Historical Society) presents the second keynote address.

Keynote Speakers:

M. Shawn Copeland, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Theology Department at Boston College. Her research interests converge around issues of theological and philosophical anthropology and political theology as well as African and African-derived religious and cultural experience and African American intellectual history.

From 1994 to 2003 Copeland was associate professor of systematic theology at Marquette University and from 1989 to 1994, she taught at Yale University Divinity School. She serves as adjunct associate professor of systematic theology at the Institute for Black Catholic Studies, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans. She has lectured extensively in the United States as well as in Australia, Belgium, Canada, and Nigeria.

Dr. Copeland is the Past Convenor of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium (BCTS) and a former president (2003-2004) of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA). She is an honorary member of Alpha Sigma Nu and the recipient of Barry University’s Yves Congar Award for Excellence in Theology (2000) as well as honorary degrees form Holy Names College (2002) and Emmanuel College (1989).

Professor Copeland is the author of more than seventy articles and book chapters, including "Disturbing Aesthetics of Race,” Journal of Catholic Social Thought (2006); “Body, Race, and Being: Theological Anthropology in the Context of Performing and Subverting Eucharist,” in Constructive Theology: A Contemporary Approach to Classical Themes (2005); “Doing Black Catholic Theology: Rhythm, Structure, and Aesthetics,” Chicago Studies (2003); and “The Cross of Christ and Discipleship,” in Thinking of Christ: Proclamation, Explanation, Meaning (2003). She also published two books in 2009: Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being and The Subversive Power of Love: The Vision of Henriette Delille.

Since 1988, Dr. Robert Archibald has served as President and CEO of the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis. A noted lecturer and in-demand speaker, Dr. Archibald is the author of The New Town Square: Museums and Communities in Transition, published in May 2004, and an earlier work, A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community. Both volumes explore the notion of place consciousness as central to community and hence democracy. The essays in The New Town Square examine issues of community, place, and culture from a variety of perspectives. Archibald presented the keynote address at the Museums Australia’s 2006 conference held in Brisbane, Australia. The title of Archibald’s presentation was “Community and Connection: Localism in a Globalized Culture.”

Active in community concerns, Archibald has assumed a leadership role in many initiatives and organizations, including the St. Louis School Board and the city government charter reform effort. Dr. Archibald was elected by a citywide vote to serve a four-year term on the St. Louis Board of Education in April 2003. As co-chair of Citizens for Home Rule, Dr. Archibald's efforts were integral to the passage of an amendment in a November 2002 statewide vote granting St. Louis citizens the right to modify the city charter.

In November 2004, Dr. Archibald was presented with the St. Louis Award, the city's most prestigious award, conferred annually upon "the resident of metropolitan St. Louis who has contributed the most outstanding service for its development or performed such services to bring greatest honor to the community." In October 2004, Dr. Archibald was honored with the Governor's Humanities Award for Public Involvement by Missouri Governor Bob Holden. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in August 1998 and another honorary doctorate from Maryville University in May 2003. The honor was once again bestowed upon Archibald in May of 2004 when his alma mater, Northern Michigan University, presented him an honorary doctorate after having honored him with the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2000. In 2008, Dr. Archibald received the Leadership Award at FOCUS St. Louis’ annual “What’s Right with the Region” ceremony. During the NAACP’s 2009 centennial celebration, the St. Louis Chapter of the NAACP recognized Dr. Archibald as one of the “100 Most Inspiring St. Louisans” due to his commitment to the betterment of the St. Louis metropolitan region.

After years of planning and development, the Missouri Historical Society, under Dr. Archibald's leadership, in January 2004 premiered Lewis & Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition at the Missouri History Museum. The exhibition concluded its run in St. Louis in September 2004 and travels through 2006 to Philadelphia, Denver, and Portland, and then closes in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian Institution. The exhibition marks the first time that so many of the artifacts from the expedition are together in one place since the Corps of Discovery returned to St. Louis in 1806.

In February of 2002, Archibald was appointed by Missouri's governor to serve as co-chair of the Missouri Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission. In addition to his leadership of the statewide bicentennial commemoration, Archibald serves as president of the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, which is guided by tribal, federal, state and conservation advisory committees and has resolutions of support from the National Congress of American Indians and is recognized by a Presidential proclamation. In this post, Archibald oversees the fifteen National Heritage Signature Events across the country, the three-year, multi-million dollar Ad Council promotional campaign, and the U.S. Mint commemorative coin.
Archibald earned his doctorate at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. His graduate and undergraduate degrees are from Northern Michigan University in Marquette. He served as the director of the Montana Historical Society and of the Western Heritage Center in Billings, Montana, and has taught university courses in Michigan, New Mexico, Montana, and Missouri.