UK's Monuments Workshop to host inaugural national conference

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 21, 2026) — The Monuments Workshop at the University of Kentucky will host Beyond Statues: A Convening on Land, Space, and Memory Sept. 11-12 at the UK Gatton Student Center.

The free, two-day conference will bring together cultural workers, community leaders, preservationists, artists, scholars, attorneys, students, descendants and public officials engaged in the evolving work of monuments, memorialization, preservation and public memory. Registration is free, but advance registration is required.

Beyond Statues is the Monuments Workshop’s inaugural national conference and reflects the workshop’s evolution from focusing on monuments as symbols of public memory to a broader exploration of how land, spaces and memory shape society. Building on previous gatherings and years of collaborative work, the conference will create opportunities for participants to learn from one another across disciplines and communities.

“Since our earliest conversations about the project, Melynda and I have wanted the Monuments Workshop to bring people together to share both knowledge and practical experience,” said Zachary Bray, co-director of the Monuments Workshop and Ashland-Spears Distinguished Research Professor of Law at the UK J. David Rosenberg College of Law. “Beyond Statues reflects the natural evolution of that work by creating space for conversations about monuments and memorials within the broader contexts of land, place and memory.”

The conference’s keynote speaker is Martha Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. Jones is an award-winning historian, legal scholar and public intellectual whose work examines American history, democracy and the politics of memory. She is the author of several acclaimed books, including “The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir” and “Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America.”

Conference programming will include keynote presentations, panel discussions, artistic performances, breakout sessions and workshops exploring topics such as cemetery preservation, memorial landscapes, public archaeology, legal frameworks, archives, working with artists, natural spaces and local government. Attendees can also connect during meals, networking sessions and informal conversations throughout the two-day event.

“Our goal is to convene people approaching these questions from different perspectives and areas of expertise,” said Melynda Price, co-director of the Monuments Workshop, director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and professor of women and gender studies at the University of Michigan. “We hope participants leave with new ideas and relationships and with practical insights they can bring back to their own communities and organizations.”

The conference begins with an optional pre-conference event 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10, at the Kentucky Theatre. “Ghosts of A Lost Cause,” a documentary produced by Monuments Workshop collaborators Gerry Seavo James and Sherman Neal II, follows the community effort to relocate a Confederate monument in Murray, Kentucky. Following the screening, Bray will moderate a conversation with the filmmakers and local community leaders. The screening requires a separate ticket.

Registration, the conference schedule and additional information are available at the Monuments Workshop conference website: monuments.uky.edu/conference.

For more information, contact monuments@uky.edu or 859-212-9131.