Bronze and Bulletin Boards: Indigenous Language in Formal and Informal Campus Space

What histories and lives are acknowledged in officially sanctioned institutional memorials and place-names? In recent years, academic institutions in the United States and other Anglophone nations have installed a significant amount of Indigenous-language signage on their campuses. Administrators at the University of Montana have installed a number of signs in Indigenous languages, including an intended new "centerpiece" monument at the Oval due to be installed in 2025. Also in 2025, UM is simultaneously finalizing installation of an expensive three-meter-tall sign at a new "gateway" to campus. This project seeks to inquire where, and in what contexts, acknowledgement of Indigenous languages and "unsanctioned" written words occur by examining the distribution of "unofficial" posters, bulletin boards, calendars, and in handwritten notes in hallways, student lounges, and other "everyday" space. Engaging the theories and methodologies of 'ethnography of space and place' to perform a visual ethnography of the campus, this project also hopes to provoke thought about the immaterial forces at play in constructing this physical environment: What might we learn when comparing official memorializing with informal place-making in such a 'living' space?