‘Voices from Guantánamo’ is a three-part cultural event series, produced by UNCG Public History graduate students, that will take place at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. This series accompanies the Guantánamo Public Memory Project traveling exhibition, which will be showcased at the museum from December 12, 2013-February 1, 2014. Behind the Cactus Curtain:…

How does one “bring” Guantánamo to the United States? Can Guantánamo, as a symbol of imperialism and history of detainment, be compared to a national historic site in America? How do we challenge a community that would be largely offended by such a suggestion? These questions, among others, are what drive my involvement with the…

How do you make the history of the U.S. naval station at Guantánamo relevant and engaging for diverse public audiences? This is the central question we encountered in our undergraduate public history class at the University of Minnesota last fall. Many of us grappled with this question as we developed a panel for the Guantánamo…

This is the second blog post in a series by our team at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, as they prepare to host our traveling exhibit. The exhibit will open in Greensboro on December 12. This part of the semester has been delegated to small group work and this became the detailed development…

The nine of us graduate students in UNC Greensboro’s Public History program who contributed a panel to the Guantanamo Public Memory Project last year were very excited to roll up our sleeves and return this year to work on our supplement to the traveling exhibit.  In anticipation of its arrival in December, we have launched…

“The responsibility of the scribe is to record people’s emotions, people’s questions, and people’s concerns.” In addition to working with Phoenix Public Library to host our traveling exhibit and produce a great schedule of public events, our team at Arizona State University has also partnered with local artist Joan Baron. Baron was invited to create…

This week marks a very important step for our project, as our national dialogue crosses the pond, becoming a truly international dialogue. Our director, Liz Sevcenko, will be bringing a version of our traveling exhibit to London, where it will be on display at New York University in London.  She will also be hosting a…

After a great residency at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, our traveling exhibit is heading west once again. From mid-October until the end of November, our colleagues at Arizona State University will be hosting the exhibit. This is the sixth stop for the exhibit, and like every stop before it, ASU will add its own…

October 4, 2013: The Obama administration prepares to release another detainee from GTMO – the third in about as many months – after dropping its legal opposition to the release of Ibrahim Idris. Diagnosed as mentally ill soon after arriving at GTMO in 2002, Idris is not considered a threat, and will likely to be…

September 11th continues to elicit painful memories of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Flight 93.  At the University of Massachusetts-Amherst this year, the attacks were remembered in a number of ways.  In addition to an on-campus vigil for those who perished, students were encouraged to consider some of the…