Research, Whiteness, and Campus Monuments

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In this episode you’ll hear: about getting an MFA in nonfiction, conducting research for your book, confronting your privilege, the fight to remove a campus monument, and a discussion of the book Down Along With That Devil’s Bones.

Our guest is: Connor Towne O’Neill, the author of Down Along With That Devil’s Bones. He is a graduate of Vassar College, and earned an MFA from the University of Alabama. He teaches at Auburn University, and is a producer on the NPR podcast White Lies.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in the 19th century, and is the co-creator of The Academic Life podcast series on New Books Network.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

• The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward Baptist
• Race and Reunion by David Blight
• “Applying Critical Race and Memory Studies to University Place Naming Controversies: Toward a Responsible Landscape Policy” by Jordan Brasher, Derek Alderman, and Joshua Inwood
• “Landscape Fairness: Removing Discrimination from the Built Environment” by Stephen Clowney
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
• Memorial Mania by Erika Doss
• Stony the Road by Henry Louis Gates
• Nathan Bedford Forrest by Jack Hurst

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