How does memorialization and commemoration across the University of Houston campus reflect the university’s commitment to a diverse campus culture? How have these spaces been contested in the past?

Building the Past is an exercise at the crossroads of social advocacy and public history. Using the namesakes occupying the physical structures of the University of Houston, our project seeks to explore the silences and evasions inherent within the campus landscape. Additionally, it aims to highlight how the campus has served as a site of contestation for those who have been excluded both literally and figuratively from its landscape.

This project will generate a dataset informing a digital map of the University of Houston campus. These resources will allow the public and researchers to access biographies of the building namesakes and the history of the building’s construction, as well as historical photos and documents related to the building or person.