Collaboration, Co-Curation, and Community: Working on the Commemorative Cultures Research Grants

In this presentation, members of the Commemorative Cultures team based in the School of English will discuss the work they have been conducting under two research grants: an AHRC Catalyst Award entitled “Histories of Hope? Museum Redevelopment at Camp Nelson National Monument” and a Leverhulme Trust Project grant entitled ‘Remembering Refugees: Black Civil War Memory and Contemporary Commemoration”.

Dr Kristen Treen, the PI on both grants, will talk about how the two projects developed and how they intersect with one another. She will provide an introduction for how the project became involved with Camp Nelson National Monument, in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and describe the productive collaborations that have emerged from our work so far.

Dr George Francis-Kelly and Dr Laura Wilson will speak about outreach programming they have facilitated on the ground in Kentucky, emphasising the community-centred methodologies of co-curation that they have undertaken, and outlining how these events have contributed to changing ideas of public history and museum narratives.

Dr Clare Fisher and Dr Mara Curechian will discuss the use of newspaper archives during the project, highlighting productive methods for searching these sources, and showcasing a variety of our research findings.