Author: Kaylee Mulholland, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University - Google Scholar, ORCID

Abstract: »In 2020, the first permanent memorial to survivors of sexual violence was unveiled in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This essay utilizes rhetorical fieldwork to explore how the Survivors Memorial addresses a cultural crypt that silences survivors and erases sexual violence in public memory. I argue that the memorial disrupts the individuation and privatization of sexual violence to name sexual violence as a cultural trauma. In testifying to cultural trauma, the Survivors Memorial transforms individuals into witnesses. Witnessing facilitates survivors’ attunement to personal trauma and calls for memorial visitors to break the silence of rape culture.« (Source: Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies)

Wikipedia: History of the Americas: History of the United States | Memory: Memorial / Monuments and memorials in the United States | Sex and the law: Sexual violence