Contested Space: Communist and Confederate Monuments

Cold War Spaces: An Online Discussion Series

The 13th Cold War Spaces lunchtime talk with Benjamin Forest, Associate Professor of Geography at McGill University, Montreal; Juliet Johnson, Professor of Political Science at McGill University, Montreal; and Joes Segal, Chief Curator and Director of Programming at the Wende Museum.

Forest, Johnson, and Segal will discuss the fate of monuments rendered obsolete in the former communist countries after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and compare them with the current wave of toppling and defacing of monuments dedicated to historical figures associated with colonialism, slavery, racism, and genocide in the United States and beyond.

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An online program reflecting on space as a gateway to cultural history, the Wende Museum presents this series of weekly interviews asking questions about Cold War spaces.

How does space impact the way we live and experience our environment? What did private space really mean under socialism? What was the function of public space between state planning and private appropriation? Who was sent to the secluded spaces of prisons, mental institutions, and gulags? Which global connections were established in spite or because of Cold War borders? What imaginary spaces were created by art, science fiction, and utopian dreaming? And how did all these spaces change after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union?