Shana Russell, Humanities Action Lab
Proposal Type
Roundtable
Seeking
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
Related Topics
- Advocacy
- Memory
- Social Justice
Abstract
States of Incarceration is a national public humanities initiative that was created and is sustained through collaboration between universities, community organizations, and public spaces in thirty communities throughout the United States. The project asked local teams to collaborate in the interest of researching the history of mass incarceration in their communities bring that history to bear on the current impact of mass incarceration locally. This roundtable brings together members of the coalition who will share the ways they used the public humanities asa means of working alongside local organizers to re-imagine justice and facilitate systemic impact on the local level.
Description
Goals:
- To facilitate a conversation among HAL partners about where public history fits within the current movement for criminal justice reform
- To use the broader conversation to brainstorm and imagine new ways for public humanities to support social justice
- To share best practices for centering the perspectives of those most impacted when developing public history projects
- To consider the possibilities for sustaining the long-term impact of public history projects on communities and institutions
- To provide a space for engaged dialogue with NCPH participants about the States of Incarceration exhibition which will be on display at the Hartford Public Library during the conferenceFeedback: We are looking for feedback on ways that we can use this very focused roundtable to . lay the groundwork for having a much broader engaged conversation with the people in the room on public history and social justice more broadly.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Shana Russell, [email protected].
If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
Hi Shana,
I think the key to expanding the conversation beyond the scope of the States of Incarceration exhibition is to focus on the methods by which the HAL partners approached and worked with community groups, how they incorporated what they learned from those groups into the exhibition, and reflections on doing this very delicate type of engagement with the community. As a member of the IUPUI group that worked on the Indiana portion of States of Incarceration, doing site visits and interviews and having candid feedback from our community partners was extremely helpful in shaping the exhibit and the online portions. Using States of Incarceration as an example of how to talk about difficult topics in a community without alienating those who are your subject could be very helpful to those who are attempting to do similar things.
I’m actually wondering if this is more of a Working Group than a roundtable, Shannon – it has a kind of “working” set of goals that might fit better in that format.
However you do it, it’s definitely a strong fit with the conference theme and with ongoing discussions that have happened at NCPH in recent years, so it’s great to see this as a proposal idea! One thing to be aware of (which you may already know about) is that there will be a States of Incarceration exhibit opening at the Hartford Public Library on the Thursday evening of the conference, and we’re hoping to link with that as an optional evening activity. So it would be good to think about how to connect these pieces (maybe have a working group that could meet at the library earlier that day, before the opening?).