Clare Fisher

Biography:

Clare received her MA from the University of St Andrews and, after gaining her MSt from the University of Oxford, returned to St Andrews to complete her PhD on the concept of monumentality in the United States since the Civil War. Following this, Clare served as a NEH Public Humanities postdoctoral fellow at St Mary’s College of Maryland, where her work centered on the college’s recently built Commemorative to Enslaved Peoples of Southern Maryland.

Research Areas:

Previously an NEH Public Humanities Fellow and Research Associate for the public art and history studio, Monument Lab, Clare’s work addresses the intersection of commemoration and social justice. Her current research focuses on the symbolism of enslaved community cabins in visual and literary representation, and the present-day memorialisation of Civil War refugee camps. This research will form the basis of her first monograph, a study that scrutinises the long-term impact of temporary structures, and their bearing on twenty-first century conceptions on monumentality.

Alongside colleagues at St Andrews and the National Park Service, Clare is also working on the redevelopment of the museum at the Camp Nelson National Monument in Kentucky on the project ‘Remembering Refugees: Black Civil War Memory and Contemporary Commemoration’. She has also been a long-standing member of the Commemorative Cultures team, a digital humanities project dedicated to mapping and interpreting Civil War monuments.