TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — An upcoming exhibit and lecture series offered by The University of Alabama’s history department, in association with the Honors College Faculty-in-Residence’s “Telling Your Stories” series, offer glimpses into the stories of everyday life through unusual sources.
The exhibit, titled “Visualizing War and Change: Untold Stories of Daily Life From Vietnam Through Visual Materials (1945-2011)” will be on display on the second floor of Gorgas Library on the UA campus. The exhibit will run from Monday, Oct. 24 to Friday, Dec. 16. The exhibit is free and open to the public.
The exhibit portrays life in Vietnam through the medium of communist propaganda posters. The curator, Nhung Walsh, is a UA graduate student in history who was born and raised in Hanoi, Vietnam.
“Unlike Chinese, North Korean or Russian propaganda posters, which are loaded with aggressive or ideological communist messages, Vietnamese propaganda posters use a softer tone, focusing mainly on the daily lives of the people and support for the government, its policies, or the military,” Walsh said. “By presenting such images, the Vietnamese government has attempted to foster patriotism and nationalism among the people.”
The art exhibit and lecture series are part of a series titled “Stories from Unexpected Sources: Exploring Alternative Archives for Global Histories.”
“This series invites historians from a variety of global contexts to discuss their methodology for exploring stories from unexpected sources – historical events that have often been skewed in their historical representation, but that can be encountered in an entirely different way through a shift in perspectives,” said Dr. Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, UA assistant professor of history.
The first lecture coincides with the opening of the art exhibit. The lecture, titled “More Than a Whore or a Wench: Writing Marginal Histories in the Early Modern Atlantic World,” is by Dr. Jenny Shaw, UA assistant professor of history. The lecture will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24, in 205 Smith Hall.
Upcoming lectures, which are free and open to the public, are:
* “Viewing Vietnamese History Through Art From Colonialism to the Present” by Dr. Nora Taylor, of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago – 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, in 205 Smith Hall.
* “Stories of the Buddha: Ancient, Medieval, Modern” by Dr. Kurtis Schaeffer of the University of Virginia, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8 in 205 Gorgas Library.
“Television as Archive: What Can We Learn About American Politics from Watching Old Cop Shows?” by Dr. Rebecca Hill of Kennesaw State University, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in 205 Gorgas Library.
This lecture series and exhibit are part of the Honors College Faculty-in-Residence “Telling Your Stories” series. Other sponsors are UA’s history department, Asian studies, African American studies, the Bankhead Fund, American studies, geological sciences, religious studies, University Libraries, Housing and Residential Communities and Phi Alpha Theta.
For details, contact Holmes-Tagchungdarpa at aholmes12@as.ua.edu.
The history department is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.
Contact
Richard LeComte, media relations, rllecomte@ur.ua.edu, 205/348-3782
Source
Dr. Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, aholmes12@as.ua.edu