ABSTRACT
In this paper I examine some of the competing values underpinning debates on the physical legacy of a troubled past. I focus on the controversy over the former Calhoun College at Yale University and the physical legacy it contains, which includes artworks in public and semi-public places. I discuss the approach to these issues taken by Yale President Peter Salovey in his 2015 address to the incoming class and evaluate actions already taken at Yale (alteration, recontextualization, destruction). I argue against Salovey’s demand that the discussion be informed by a coherent theory and defend an anti-theoretical, highly particularized approach to these questions.
