Dealing with Difficult Pasts: Ethics, Collections, and Public Spaces

On Monday, March 17, scholars from around the world will give presentations of their work in four panels over the course of the day. Each panel focuses on one theme (Voices Left Out, Family Histories, Difficult Histories, and the Ethics of Data) but brings together research on three difficult pasts: Northern Ireland, the Holocaust, and the history of enslavement and its aftermath in the United States.

9:30–10:45 Panel 1: Voices Left Out

Robert M. Ehrenreich Director, Academic Research and Dissemination (USHMM)

Olwen Purdue Professor of Social History; Director, Centre for Public History (Queen's University Belfast)

Jason Young Associate Professor of History, Director, Inst. for the Humanities (University of Michigan)

10:45–11 Break

11–12:15 Panel 2: Family Histories

Tamar Aizenberg Ph.D. Candidate, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (Brandeis University)

Nemata Blyden Armstead Robinson Prof. of 19th Century African American History (University of Virginia)

Briony Widdis Postdoctoral Fellow (Queen's University Belfast)

12:15-1 Lunch

1–2:15 Panel 3: Difficult Histories

Kevin Gaines Professor, History and African American and African Studies (University of Virginia)

Ruth Mandel Professor of Anthropology (University College London)

Laura McAtackney Professor in Radical Humanities and Archaeology (University College Cork, Ireland)

2:15–2:30 Break

2:30-3:45 Panel 4: Ethics of Data

Caroline Sturdy Colls Professor (University of Huddersfield)

Rachel Deblinger Director, Modern Endangered Archives Program (UCLA Library)

Jennie Williams Postdoctoral Fellow (University of Virginia)

3:45–4:30 Reception

The public forum will be hosted in the Newcomb Hall South Meeting Room at UVA. Paid parking is available on site at the Central Grounds Garage.

On Sunday evening, March 16, UVA professors and filmmakers Claudrena Harold and Kevin Everson will screen and discuss a collection of film shorts in Nau 101 at 5 PM, followed by a catered reception, in the South Lawn atrium. This event doesn't require registration.

Can You Move Like This: Black Fire films by Kevin Jerome Everson and Claudrena N. Harold

The Black Fire film series consists of eleven short form works produced between 2013 and 2023: Sugarcoated Arsenic, Foosball: U. of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 1976, We Demand, Fastest Man in the State, 70kg, How Can I Ever Be Late, Black Bus Stop, Hampton, Pride, Gospel Hill, and Accidental Athlete.

Though individually distinct in their formal qualities and thematic focus, these films reflect Everson’s and Harold’s deep interest in the interiority of Black life, particularly those formal and informal spaces where African Americans communed, hobnobbed, prayed, loved, quarreled, reconciled, and moved on. Within these communal spaces, which range from the college dormitory to the local bar, the directors engage the epic and the quotidian, the sacred and the profane, the individual and the collective.

This screening will feature three shorts and a discussion with the directors.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Newcomb Hall, 180 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, United States