EMSI LA2026 “Historical Memory, Federal Agencies, Mission Conservation”

A virtual conversation with Yve Chavez (Associate Professor of Art History, University of Oklahoma) and Sarah Montoya (Co-Director, Indigenous Humanities Lab, Virginia Commonwealth University), moderated by Julia Lewandoski (Assistant Professor of History, University of California, San Diego). Panelists will consider Indigenous responses to Spanish colonial heritage in California, including public art, national trails, and historic sites.

LA2026 is presented by the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute. It brings together members of the public and humanities scholars for eighteen conversations about museum and cultural exhibitions at six partnering institutions in the Los Angeles region, including the Autry Museum of the American West, The Huntington, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes / El El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and USC Libraries. Each exhibition frames conversations about the anniversary of 1776 from the perspective of California and the West. Each discussion will focus on specific items from one of the partner exhibitions, encouraging public discussions about national identities, relationships between regional and national narratives, participating in democracy, and human relationships to the land.

The EMSI LA2026 Project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.