About

About the Project

To memorialize is to preserve the memory of a person, an act, a group, or a war. Oftentimes, a monument forces the public to commemorate a past that no longer reflects current values and perspectives -- thus, complicating the presence of the memorial. This process illuminates the need to re-imagine history not as a unified, authoritative record, but one that is constantly being reshaped. 

The Migration Memorials Project explores what it means to "make History" through collecting and analyzing information about memorials dedicated to migration. The project is currently in the process of collecting and organizing information about memorials to migration on the web, bringing together records from formal sources, like the National Parks Services and the Historical Marker Database, and informal sources, like Yelp and other social media platforms. By developing an archive of memorials dedicated to transiency, we seek to develop innovative research into better understanding what, why, and how we memorialize, as well as how publics encounter the past and their envisioned migrant history.

Future Growth

The project started out as a collaborative lab project at Duke University in the Representing Migration Humanities Lab, but starting in the Spring 2019 semester, the archive will be incorporated into migration-focused Humanities courses at Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Students in these courses will research and add new records to the project, as well as use the records to create scholarship that more deeply engages with the cultural practices of memorialization.

If you are interested in participating in the project, please contact Grant Glass at grantg@live.unc.edu.

Project Participants

Grant Glass, PhD Candidate in English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chris Huber, PhD Candidate in English, Duke University

Charlotte Sussman, Professor of English, Duke University

Beryl Bortey, Undergraduate in Health Policy Management, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Aidan Boyle, Undergraduate, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Georgia Bronson, Undergraduate in Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Tri'nity Brown, Undergraduate in Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Molly Enloe, Undergraduate in Computer Science and Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Flannery Fitch, Undergraduate in History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Eve Golecruz, Undergraduate, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Wesley Harwood, Undergraduate in Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ellie Heffernan, Undergraduate in Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Jordan Killenberg, Undergraduate in Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

George Kostantinis, Undergraduate in Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Molly Nguyen, Undergraduate in Information Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Kendall Orrantia, Undergraduate in Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Raine Thai, Undergraduate in Information Science and Business Administration, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Sylvia Wang, Undergraduate in Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Samuel Henry, Undergraduate in Dramatic Arts, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Marcus Christopher Olarte, Undergraduate, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Halsey Ziglar, Undergraduate in Media and Journalism and Communications, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Rae Maszer, Undergraduate in Computer Science and Astrophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Brandon Kaminski, Undergraduate in Computer Science and Linguistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Alaina Elizabeth Randolph, Undergraduate in Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Hayley Parsons, Undergraduate in Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 

Amélie Kadackal, Undergraduate in Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 

Andrew Cornwell, Undergraduate in Economics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Befiker Ollivierre, Undergraduate in Economics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Annie Gibson, Undergraduate in Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

George Andrade, Undergraduate in Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Stephanie Cooper, Undergraduate in Global Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ayana Monroe, Undergraduate in Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ezequiel Joaquin Torres, Undergraduate in Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill