Second-year Public History MA student Heather Roehl is representing SHPRS in numerous ways. Whether it's presenting at the Oral History Association conference, creating a traveling exhibit about incarceration or researching the Holocaust, she is spreading the importance of public history to our future. She answered a few questions about her current projects.
What made you interested in public history?
After high school, I went to Sullivan University to get a degree in Baking and Pastry Arts and Hospitality Management. I spent the next several years working at top level country clubs and hotels in the St. Louis area. In my spare time, I would read history books. Mostly I focused my reading on World War II. History was a way for me to escape into an era that I only heard about from my grandparents. My grandfather served in World War II and I only ever heard stories from my Aunt and grandmother about his experiences. Reading history books also helped break up the 40-80-hour work weeks that I would have. Working in the hospitality industry can range in hours depending on the holidays and the seasons.
Only two years after finishing at Sullivan University, I realized that I wanted to learn more about history and not just from the books that I was reading. I enrolled part-time at Webster University. I did not think anything would come of my time in school, but just enjoyment of learning about different eras and cultures. As time passed I started to feel a calling to pursue more with the history degree that I would be receiving and wanted to apply for graduate school. Professor Rosenblum was a mentor of mine at Webster and encouraged me to go a different route then just getting a master’s in history. He explained public history to me and I had always wanted to do more museum or library work when I finished my studies in history. That is why he recommended a public history degree.
Another aspect that led me to public history was a class that Professor Rosenblum was teaching on the Third Reich. He had opened his class up to local docents in the area that worked at the Jewish Community Center’s Holocaust Museum. I started chatting with them because I had an interest in the Holocaust and they invited me one day to the museum. While at the museum I met the director, and signed up to be a docent at the museum. This experience also helped me decide to get a degree in public history.
Tell me about the HAL States of Incarceration Exhibition. How were you chosen? What did the exhibit consist of?
In the Fall of 2016, I took a course, HST 598: Incarceration, Immigration, and Borderlands. As part of the course the class would be responsible for making a panel that would be part of the HAL States of Incarceration Exhibition. The Exhibition consisted of several other universities around the country that would create panels that would be displayed in the HAL States of Incarceration. The purpose was for each school to pick a topic that related most to their community.
For our project the class decided to focus on Eloy Detention Center because a number of immigrant detainees and detention centers located in Arizona. The title of our exhibition panel is “How Do Profits Shape Punishment?” Eloy Detention Center is the third largest immigrant detention center in the United States. The class wanted to focus on the fact that Eloy is a private detention center and receives a per diem rate for every detainee that is at the facility from the federal government. With the money that Eloy receives we focused on the fact that the quality of food, the detention center, and the medical care that the detainees receive is below average. There have been 32 deaths of detainees in the United States from 2003-2015, of that number 14 perished while being incarcerated at Eloy.
After the semester was over, Professor Sarat asked if there were any volunteers that would be interested in going to New York City for the launch of the HAL States of Incarceration Exhibition. I immediately volunteered for the chance to go and represent ASU and my class at the exhibition launch.
What does the exhibit consist of? Where will it travel?
This is the schedule of the traveling exhibit to each state in the next three years. It will be at Phoenix Public Library September-October 2018. The website to learn more about the traveling exhibit and to view all the states that were involved in the project is at http://statesofincarceration.org/. The exhibit consists of the panels created by the different universities. There is the website that consists of stories that were created by the students at the university as well.
National Exhibition Schedule:
April 3, 2016 – April 24, 2016
Aronson Gallery, Sheila Johnson Design Center, New York, NY
May 7, 2016 – August 6, 2016
California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA
August 29, 2016 – September 23, 2016
University of Rhode Island Gallery, Providence Campus, Providence, RI
October 5, 2016 – October 26, 2016
Mebane Gallery, UT Austin School of Architecture, Austin, TX
November 8, 2016 – December 15, 2016
International Civil Rights Museum, Greensboro, NC
January 19, 2017 – February 14, 2017
CAS Gallery, Coral Gables, FL
March 1, 2017 – March 12, 2017
The Wauregan Building presented by Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke, MA
March 13, 2017 – March 30, 2017
Forbes Library and Historic Northampton, Northampton, MA
April 6, 2017 – April 10, 2017
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
April 10, 2017 – May 13, 2017
Central Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library, Indianapolis, IN
May - August 2017
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Chicago, IL
September 2, 2017 – October 11, 2017
Tang Teaching Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY
October 18, 2017 – December 15, 2017
Gateway Project Spaces, Newark, NJ
January 22, 2018 – March 9, 2018
Douglass Library, New Brunswick, NJ
March - April 2018
TBD, Boston, MA
Fall 2018
Nash Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
September - October 2018
Phoenix Public Library (Burton Barr), Phoenix, AZ
What do you hope people learn from the exhibit?
I hope that people will learn a little more about immigration and incarceration in the United States. I am from St. Louis, Missouri and I was not aware of some of the situation that was occurring in Arizona with immigration. I had no idea about the amount of incarceration centers that were located throughout the United States. I feel that anyone that comes to the exhibition will learn more about the states of incarceration that are present in the United States. The purpose is to start a conversation about the topic and continue with that conversation throughout the exhibitions travel in the United States.
I believe you also recently presented at the OHA conference with Jodi Silvio. How was the experience of presenting with such a prestigious association?
I did recently present at the OHA conference, but Jodi and I presented two different projects. I presented in the poster session. My poster was entitled, The Middle of an Interview: Information Learned Through Multiple Interviews in Oral History. I am looking at the memory of Holocaust Survivors through the use of Oral History interviews. For the study, I am looking at interviews that were conducted by Dr. David P. Boder, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Fortunoff Library at Yale University. I was just recently selected to present my findings at the NCPH Annual Conference in April.
This was the first time presenting my work to an audience of professionals, students, and others that want to learn about oral history. It was intimidating, but also very rewarding. I met several individuals that were excited about the project and want to learn more of my findings when it is finished. I recommend to all students in public history or history to present a project at a local conference of their choosing.
Why is public history so important for the community?
My work since becoming a graduate student has been to focus on Holocaust survivors. I am currently working on an internship with the AZ Jewish Historical Society at the Cutler Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center. I have been learning more about the Jewish community and have become close to the people within in this community. I hope that my work will make a difference for future generations.
I am not sure how to explain this but I feel that it is important with my research to continue to tell the stories of Holocaust survivors to future generations. There have always been deniers of the Holocaust and I feel that it is my job to keep them at bay. The number of Holocaust survivors is decreasing and soon there will not be any of them left to tell their stories. I feel that it is my purpose to continue on with their legacies and teach it to whomever I can reach. I have several projects that I am working on to help tell the stories of Holocaust survivors in a different light.