What’s in a Name?
This fictional case explores the challenges universities face in confronting issues of memorialization and naming on their campuses. What responsibilities do universities have to reconsider who they memorialize? How should they weigh different stakeholder perspectives? How might different approaches to naming promote or impede equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging on campus?
Case Description
The report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery reveals the University’s multifaceted connections to the institution of slavery and the number of University affiliates who took part and profited from enslavement. With this history out in the open, we must ask ourselves, Who should we memorialize in our campus spaces?
In this narrative case set at a fictional liberal arts college, a group of administrators and students on the Committee on Historical Memory meet to discuss their institution’s approach to renaming. The previous academic year, the college released a report detailing its namesake’s connections to slavery and renamed the central administration building. However, some students are now calling for further action—including renaming the school itself. College affiliates are divided and administrators must weigh what to do next.
“What’s in a Name?” raises important questions for administrators, students, faculty, staff, and all University affiliates in light of what universities across the country are learning about their entanglements with slavery. What responsibilities fall on the University? How can and should we foster engagement with these histories and reconsider current practices in a way that also promotes equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging for all?
Resources for Educators and Facilitators
Download “What’s in a Name?” case study.
Download “What’s in a Name?” reader’s theater. We often use reader’s theater for professional development sessions, workshops, and other one-off events. This version is designed to be read aloud with different audience members voicing the different characters. After you “perform” the case together, you can then discuss it just as you would discuss the narrative version of the case.
Download “What’s in a Name?” facilitator’s guide.
Download “What’s in a Name?” normative case discussion presentation.
Download “Leveraging Norms for Challenging Conversations” guide.