Cultural, urban, and political geographers have an established literature examining the monumental landscape. Often overlooked by scholars in larger disciplines, these works combine often unique methodological approaches to understanding how monuments are a socio-spatial manifestation of wider cultural and political processes. More than just inert markers of place and history, monuments are active parts of how public memory is formed, how power is expressed, and how difference is too often expunged. I’m sharing here a few citations related to the recent trend in removing statutes that reflect racist power structures. These are just a handful of what I had on hand:

Alderman, Derek, and Owen Dwyer. 2014. “Primer on the Geography of Memory: Site and Situation of Commemorative Landscapes.” Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina.” Documenting the American South. University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dwyer, Owen J. 2002. “Location, Politics, and the Production of Civil Rights Memorial Landscapes1.” Urban Geography 23 (1): 31–56.

Forest, Benjamin, and Juliet Johnson. 2019. “Confederate Monuments and the Problem of Forgetting.” Cultural Geographies 26 (1): 127–131.

Hoelscher, Steven, and Derek H. Alderman. 2004. “Memory and Place: Geographies of a Critical Relationship.” Social & Cultural Geography 5 (3): 347–355.

Mitchell, Katharyne. 2003. “Monuments, Memorials, and the Politics of Memory.” Urban Geography 24 (5): 442–59. https://doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.24.5.442.