Why Remember Guantánamo? (Day One)
Thursday 13 December, 2012
9am - 4:30pm, $0/Rsvp
Barnard University, Barnard Hall
3009 Broadway, Roon 304 (Held Lecture Room)
“Why Remember Guantánamo?†will bring together an international group of diverse scholars and stakeholders to launch the Guantánamo Public Memory Project’s traveling exhibit. The Project explores the long history and contested memory of the US Naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba from 1898 to the present through a traveling exhibition, web platform; mobile engagement strategy; archive; and curriculum.
The Project is a collaboration of 11 different universities across the country, through courses offered simultaneously in the Fall of 2012 for MA students in Latin American Studies, Public History, and Museum Studies. The exhibit, developed by students from each participating university, will open in NYU’s Kimmel Windows December 13 2012 before traveling to 9 other sites across the country. The conference will bring together leading scholars and stakeholders in GTMO’s past and future to explore the century-long history of Guantánamo before 9-11 and its implications for what came after, raising critical questions around citizenship, immigration, public health, national security, and the nature of democracy.
Featuring multimedia explorations of the dramatic scenes and stories from GTMO’s varied past developed by student teams in diverse parts of the country, together with their reflections on the varying meanings GTMO has for each local community, the conference will facilitate a national public dialogue from multiple perspectives on what GTMO’s history suggests for the future of this place, its people, and its policies. The conference, to be held December 13-14, will be a partnership between NYU and Columbia University, with events at Columbia on the 13th and at NYU on the evening of the 13th and the 14th.
9:00-10:30 Opening: Guantánamo and Historical Dialogue
• Elazar Barkan, Director, Columbia Institute for the Study of Human Rights
• Liz Å evÄenko, Director, Guantánamo Public Memory Project
• Jonathan Hansen, Lecturer in Social Studies, Harvard University
10:30-10:45 Coffee break
10:45-12:15 Where is Guantánamo? Locating the Legal Black Hole
• Moderator: Diana Taylor, University Professor of Performance Studies and Spanish, New York University
• Student teams from the University of Massachusetts and Arizona State University present public memory projects on mapping GTMO and the history of its built environment
Commentators:
• Michelle Chase, Assistant Professor of History, Bloomfield College
• Commander Jeff Johnston, head of public works at GTMO, 1999-2009
12:15-1:15 Lunch
1:15-2:45 GTMO and American Empire
• Moderator: Michael Strauss, Professor of International Relations, Centre d’Etudes et Stratégique Diplomatique
• Student teams present public memory projects on the War of 1898 and the leasing of Guantánamo Bay (Rutgers University New Brunswick); life at GTMO in the Cold War (University of North Carolina at Greensboro); and military families’ communities of memory (University of West Florida).
Commentators:
• Jana Lipman, Associate Professor, Tulane University
• Esther Halmon and Leslie Aldama-Palmer, daughters of Cuban workers who grew up on the base in the 1960s
2:45-3:00 Coffee break
3:00-4:30 Working group dialogues: What do we need to remember about GTMO? What questions does its history help us discuss as a community and country? What should be the next steps for the Guantánamo Public Memory Project and how can each of us contribute?
6:00-8:00 Exhibit opening reception, King Juan Carlos Center, New York University, 53 Washington Square South
The Project is a collaboration of 11 different universities across the country, through courses offered simultaneously in the Fall of 2012 for MA students in Latin American Studies, Public History, and Museum Studies. The exhibit, developed by students from each participating university, will open in NYU’s Kimmel Windows December 13 2012 before traveling to 9 other sites across the country. The conference will bring together leading scholars and stakeholders in GTMO’s past and future to explore the century-long history of Guantánamo before 9-11 and its implications for what came after, raising critical questions around citizenship, immigration, public health, national security, and the nature of democracy.
Featuring multimedia explorations of the dramatic scenes and stories from GTMO’s varied past developed by student teams in diverse parts of the country, together with their reflections on the varying meanings GTMO has for each local community, the conference will facilitate a national public dialogue from multiple perspectives on what GTMO’s history suggests for the future of this place, its people, and its policies. The conference, to be held December 13-14, will be a partnership between NYU and Columbia University, with events at Columbia on the 13th and at NYU on the evening of the 13th and the 14th.
9:00-10:30 Opening: Guantánamo and Historical Dialogue
• Elazar Barkan, Director, Columbia Institute for the Study of Human Rights
• Liz Å evÄenko, Director, Guantánamo Public Memory Project
• Jonathan Hansen, Lecturer in Social Studies, Harvard University
10:30-10:45 Coffee break
10:45-12:15 Where is Guantánamo? Locating the Legal Black Hole
• Moderator: Diana Taylor, University Professor of Performance Studies and Spanish, New York University
• Student teams from the University of Massachusetts and Arizona State University present public memory projects on mapping GTMO and the history of its built environment
Commentators:
• Michelle Chase, Assistant Professor of History, Bloomfield College
• Commander Jeff Johnston, head of public works at GTMO, 1999-2009
12:15-1:15 Lunch
1:15-2:45 GTMO and American Empire
• Moderator: Michael Strauss, Professor of International Relations, Centre d’Etudes et Stratégique Diplomatique
• Student teams present public memory projects on the War of 1898 and the leasing of Guantánamo Bay (Rutgers University New Brunswick); life at GTMO in the Cold War (University of North Carolina at Greensboro); and military families’ communities of memory (University of West Florida).
Commentators:
• Jana Lipman, Associate Professor, Tulane University
• Esther Halmon and Leslie Aldama-Palmer, daughters of Cuban workers who grew up on the base in the 1960s
2:45-3:00 Coffee break
3:00-4:30 Working group dialogues: What do we need to remember about GTMO? What questions does its history help us discuss as a community and country? What should be the next steps for the Guantánamo Public Memory Project and how can each of us contribute?
6:00-8:00 Exhibit opening reception, King Juan Carlos Center, New York University, 53 Washington Square South