White Memory and the (Counter)Stories We Might Tell

White Memory and the (Counter)Stories We Might Tell examines public history narratives to explore how Virginia Tech, a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), tells stories about its relationships with marginalized communities. I ask what we should do with archives that exceed institutional progress narratives. Specifically, I foreground White memory, a process through which (mis)remembering public history creates a network of meaning-making practices that undergird and support hegemonic storytelling and worldmaking. To explore White memory, I constructed two case studies of Virginia Tech public history events. Using queer and decolonial archival methodologies, I practice what Mira Shimabukuro (2015) called "rhetorical attendance"; then, I construct counterstories to call storytellers to account for flattening and compression in progress narratives. First, I examined 1872 Forward, VT's sesquicentennial celebration, held in March 2022. Then, I explored Denim Day Do-Over, a 2019 event in which White memory obscured queer protests. Through juxtaposition, I discovered and highlighted narratives in tension. These tensions make clear the struggle for equity at a PWI and challenge the notion that progress is linear. Successful institutional diversity work with and for marginalized people requires three key characteristics: ongoingness, accountability, and relationship. One-time diversity events are not enough to change the conditions of institutional inequity. Rather, to combat tendencies towards White memory, Virginia Tech must create ongoing, accountable relationships by working in coalitions with marginalized communities. Ultimately, I argue that institutional work with marginalized communities must continue beyond special events to make material, in addition to symbolic, changes.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Rhetoric and Writing

Department dc:contributor.department

English

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Gray, Katherine Maire

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Dubinsky, James M.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Cassinelli, Silas M.
• Sano-Franchini, Jennifer
• Lindgren, Chris A.
• Webster, Travis

• public history
• progress narratives
• hegemonic storytelling
• narratives in tension
• institutional accountability

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:38345

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/116213