Faculty Collaborator Profile

Jalane Schmidt

Director, The Memory Project and Associate Professor, Religious Studies

The Memory Project

About

Jalane Schmidt is Director of the UVA Democracy Initiative’s Memory Project, and Associate Professor of Religious Studies. She teaches courses on race, religion, and social change movements, and is the author of Cachita’s Streets: The Virgin of Charity, Race & Revolution in Cuba, a study of Cuban national identity, religion, and public events. A scholar-activist in Charlottesville, Virginia, Schmidt plans and leads public history events focused upon Civil War memory, Jim Crow, and local African American history. She cofounded the 2019-2020 Monumental Justice Virginia campaign which successfully lobbied the Virginia General Assembly to overturn a century-old state law which had prohibited localities from removing Confederate statues.

Works

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Confederate Monuments Tour

Confederate Monuments Tour

Tour Confederate statues in downtown Charlottesville to learn about the role they play in our local and national narrative about religion, race, and democracy.

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Panel: The Politics of Black Religion in the Age of Trump

Panel: The Politics of Black Religion in the Age of Trump

Taking cue from theologian and civil rights leader, Wyatt Tee Walker, scholars will discuss the prospects and possibilities of democracy in America.

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American Idols

American Idols

With our colleague Professor Jalane Schmidt, we explore an often-overlooked aspect of Confederate monuments: religion.

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Thinking On My Feet: A Virtual Tour of Charlottesville’s Johnny Reb Statue

Thinking On My Feet: A Virtual Tour of Charlottesville’s Johnny Reb Statue

Learn about Charlottesville's Johnny Reb statue, and the role it has played in our local and national narratives about religion, race, and democracy.

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Praying With Our Feet: Religious Activists Remember the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville

Praying With Our Feet: Religious Activists Remember the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville

On the 3rd anniversary of the white supremacist attacks on Charlottesville, religious racial justice activists reflect on their counter-protest efforts

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Spirit and Struggle: Landmarks of Black Sacred Song

Spirit and Struggle: Landmarks of Black Sacred Song

The sounds of gospel swell through the films of Micah Ariel Watson (UVA '18). Join the filmmaker and UVA's Ashon Crawley for a screening and conversation.

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Sites of Memory

Sites of Memory

A new kind of public memory is emerging in Charlottesville's Court Square.