Why Remember Guantánamo? (Day Two)
Monday 10 December, 2012
9am - 5pm, $0/Rsvp
NYU, King Carlos I of Spain Center
53 Washington Square South
“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.
9:00-10:00 Introduction to the Guantánamo Public Memory Project
• Liz Å evÄenko, Director, Guantánamo Public Memory Project
10:00-11:30 Safe Haven or Prison Camp? GTMO and immigration policy
• Moderator: Holly Ackerman, Librarian for Latin American, Iberian and Latino Studies, Duke University
• Student teams present public memory projects on Haitian refugee experiences (Brown University) and Cuban refugee experiences (New York University):
Commentators:
• Colonel Stephen Kinder, Retired Colonel, United States Army, Commander, Joint Task Force at GTMO during 1992-93 Haitian refugee crisis
• Jorge del Rio, Cuban balsero
• Betsy Campisi, University at Albany, State University of New York
11:30-11:45 Coffee break
11:45-1:15 National Security’s New Paradigm: Confronting the post-9/11 past
• Student teams present public memory projects on post-9-11 GTMO and the Arts of Detention (Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis)
Commentators:
• Peter Jan Honigsberg, University of San Francisco Law School, Project Founder and Director, Witness to Guantánamo
• Ramzi Kassem, Director Immigrant & Refugee Rights Clinic and Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility, CUNY
• Zeke Johnson, Director, Security with Human Rights Campaign, Amnesty International
1:15-2:15 Lunch
2:15-3:45 Can we “close Guantánamo?†Alternative visions for GTMO’s future
• Moderator: Catherine Powell, Associate Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
• Student teams present work on post 9-11 GTMO (University of California, Riverside) and how GTMO has been closed before and what’s being imagined and built at GTMO today (University of Minnesota)
Commentators:
• Zachary Katznelson, Senior Staff Attorney, National Security Program, ACLU
• Omar Farah, Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights
• Albert Shimkus, Associate Professor, National Security Affairs, Naval War College
• Karen Greenberg, Director, National Security Program, Fordham Law School
3:45-4:00 Coffee break
4:00-5:00 Working group dialogues: What do we need to remember about GTMO? What questions does its recent history and current status 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?
5:00-5:30 Report back and closing
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.
9:00-10:00 Introduction to the Guantánamo Public Memory Project
• Liz Å evÄenko, Director, Guantánamo Public Memory Project
10:00-11:30 Safe Haven or Prison Camp? GTMO and immigration policy
• Moderator: Holly Ackerman, Librarian for Latin American, Iberian and Latino Studies, Duke University
• Student teams present public memory projects on Haitian refugee experiences (Brown University) and Cuban refugee experiences (New York University):
Commentators:
• Colonel Stephen Kinder, Retired Colonel, United States Army, Commander, Joint Task Force at GTMO during 1992-93 Haitian refugee crisis
• Jorge del Rio, Cuban balsero
• Betsy Campisi, University at Albany, State University of New York
11:30-11:45 Coffee break
11:45-1:15 National Security’s New Paradigm: Confronting the post-9/11 past
• Student teams present public memory projects on post-9-11 GTMO and the Arts of Detention (Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis)
Commentators:
• Peter Jan Honigsberg, University of San Francisco Law School, Project Founder and Director, Witness to Guantánamo
• Ramzi Kassem, Director Immigrant & Refugee Rights Clinic and Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility, CUNY
• Zeke Johnson, Director, Security with Human Rights Campaign, Amnesty International
1:15-2:15 Lunch
2:15-3:45 Can we “close Guantánamo?†Alternative visions for GTMO’s future
• Moderator: Catherine Powell, Associate Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
• Student teams present work on post 9-11 GTMO (University of California, Riverside) and how GTMO has been closed before and what’s being imagined and built at GTMO today (University of Minnesota)
Commentators:
• Zachary Katznelson, Senior Staff Attorney, National Security Program, ACLU
• Omar Farah, Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights
• Albert Shimkus, Associate Professor, National Security Affairs, Naval War College
• Karen Greenberg, Director, National Security Program, Fordham Law School
3:45-4:00 Coffee break
4:00-5:00 Working group dialogues: What do we need to remember about GTMO? What questions does its recent history and current status 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?
5:00-5:30 Report back and closing