“Alienation and Belonging” Roundtable: A Discussion about the CHR’s Community Engaged History Project
Thursday, October 6, 2022 7:20 PM to 8:45 PM EDT
Hybrid Event: Merten 1204 or via Zoom (registration required; link below)
Registration has closed.
Please join the Center for Humanities Research for a roundtable discussion, convened by Gabrielle Tayac, to learn more about our grant-funded public humanities project, "Alienation and Belonging: Shifting Cultural Landscapes in Northern Virginia."
The image many have of Northern Virginia is of a place without history, an anyplace of generic suburban homes, corporate high-rises, and strip malls. And yet, the region has long been the destination of migrants and migrant communities, communities that play a critical role in every aspect of life in the region. By building community networks, and through grassroots community organizing, immigrant community members have played active and creative roles in advocating for rights and protections and in building safety networks for those most vulnerable.
“Alienation and Belonging” uses community voices to re-narrate the story of this complex region by including the many voices of those who live here, and who have faced—in different ways, and at different moments—experiences of both alienation and belonging.
Come learn about this project, which was generously funded over the summer of 2022 with a planning grant from Virginia Humanities (learn more about VH here or below). Working together with community partners Barrios Unidos, Tenants and Workers United and the Office of Historic Alexandria, two teams of Mason researchers conducted oral histories, developed timelines, produced annotated bibliographies, and established archiving practices for and with local organizations. They are continuing work this fall and will author an interpretive plan to recommend how this summer's research might find a public audience through a website, series of classroom modules, or exhibition.
An audience Q&A will follow the roundtable discussion, moderated by students in Prof. Tayac’s community engaged history course.
Read more about "Alienation and Belonging" here.
The team wishes to extend a special thank you to our partners (including Barrios Unidos, Tenants and Workers United, and the Office of Historic Alexandria, and Virginia Humanities), for their support of and contributions to this project.
Please stay tuned for an announcement about another "Alienation and Belonging" event to follow, in spring 2023, that will include our sponsor and community partners.
Team
Muna Al Taweel (Graduate Researcher)
Teri Edwards-Hewitt (Principal Investigator)
Katja Hering (Oral History Coordinator)
Janine Hubai (Graduate Researcher)
Alison Landsberg (Principal Investigator, Project Director)
John Legg (Graduate Researcher)
Catherine Olien (Project Manager)
Aparna Shastri (Graduate Researcher)
Gabrielle Tayac (Principal Investigator)
About Virginia Humanities:
Virginia Humanities is the state humanities council. We’re headquartered in Charlottesville at the University of Virginia, but we serve the entire state. We aim to share the stories of all Virginians—or, better yet, find ways for people to share their own stories. We want Virginians to connect with their history and culture and, in doing that, we hope we’ll all get to know each other a little better. Founded in 1974, we are one of fifty-six humanities councils created by Congress with money and support from the National Endowment for the Humanities to make the humanities available to all Americans. To learn more, visit VirginiaHumanities.org.
