Unpacking the Baggage: Childhood Trauma and the Art of Memory

This talk is part of a series organized by the Salem State University History Department and the Graduate Certificate Program in Public History, "Confronting History: Public Historians and Artists Reckon with the Past."

Remembering the past is not a linear process.  It is embodied, performed and experienced on many levels.  This is especially so in the wake of trauma. Public historians and scholars Cheryl Harned and Matthew Barlow will share their research on issues of trauma and memory at an an intimate scale and discuss the ways images, objects, narrative and silences impact the practice of memory in the wake of trauma. 

Harned will speak about her doctoral dissertation project, which examines the roles of trauma, wonder, and identity in the creation of the Joseph Allen Skinner Museum in South Hadley, Massachusetts in 1930s America.  Historian Matthew Barlow will reflect on his most recent book project, which examines the processes of remembering and forgetting in the face of childhood trauma and explores the challenge of coming to terms with contradictory family memories over time.

This  event is co-sponsored by the SSU Graduate School, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Center for Youth and Childhood Studies.  It t is free and open to the public.   Refreshments will be served.  For more information, contact Margo Shea at mshea@salemstate.edu.