Description:

*Note: The conference takes place in two different locations:
Evanston on May 6th at Northwestern University and Chicago on May 7th at Northside College Preparatory High School.

Vietnamese refugees and Korean immigrants came to the United States with experiences of war that are passed to younger generations as both silence and memory. These silences and memories have been variously called legacies, haunting, and debt. They are usually undiscussed and always uncomfortable. As legacies, they are part of history and heritage. As haunting, they are felt but just out of reach. As debt, they are burdensome and ultimately unpayable. This weekend symposium explores memories of war and their consequences by bringing together Chicago’s Korean American and Vietnamese American communities and Northwestern faculty and students. The symposium emerges from an undergraduate research seminar taught by Ji-Yeon Yuh, a faculty member in the History Department and the Asian American Studies Program.

The first day will feature student research with oral history narrators, scholarly perspectives on war, trauma, and memory, and community perspectives on advocacy on behalf of refugee communities. The second day will feature a storytelling workshop and cultural performances celebrating the vibrant Vietnamese American and Korean American communities in Chicago. The highlight will be an audiovisual photography exhibition by Ethan Caldwell and John Lee showcasing the oral histories of 7 narrators. The exhibit will include photographs with listening stations by Ji-Yeon Yuh and Patricia Nguyen from interviews produced by Northwestern students. After the symposium, the exhibit will travel to Argyle Street in Uptown as a public art window installation hosted by Axis Lab.

For more information:
May 6th: https://www.facebook.com/events/468164273525874/
May 7th: https://www.facebook.com/events/119290178622589/