Introduction

Shortly after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Black and Ho-Chunk student unions at the University of Wisconsin, Madison lobbied for the removal of a 42 ton boulder formally known as Chamberlin Rock from campus. Their stated motive for the boulder’s relocation was that the rock generated distress among students of color due its nickname “N*****head” used first by a local newspaper in 1925. After more than a year of deliberation with various university stakeholders, Chamberlin Rock was removed from campus to another property owned by UW nine-and-a-half miles to the south east. American Sisyphus is an interpretive research driven project concerning Chamberlin Rock, it’s geological history, and it’s human-scale impact.

If you have a replica of Chamberlin Rock and would like to provide updates on its location, please click the button below:

Background

Chamberlin Rock Replicas

Archive Images

Acknowledgements

This research is made possible by the unwavering & generous support of:

  • My MFA faculty committee: Faisal Abdu’Allah (chair), Douglas Rosenberg, Anna Campbell, and Sarah Fitzsimons

  • My research partners Marco Vallejos and Mauricio de la Perra Gurr

  • J. Elmo Rawling of the Wisconsin Geological & Natural History Survey

  • Kacie Lucchini-Butcher of the UW Center for Campus History

  • Daniel Einstein of UW Facilities Planning & Management

  • Tricia Dusick of the UW School of Education Graduate Research Fellowship

  • Marie Christine Kohler Fellowship & the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery

  • The Blair H. and Leah D. Temkin Exhibition Award

  • Ashley Warren, Eric Hazeltine, Henry Burk, Tim O’neill, Matthew Scott Coppola, Meg Mitchell, Jason Houge, Alex Leonard and Alex Mikev