Bringing Humanities to Life: Project Unpack

The heirloom cup area of the “Project Unpack: A Retrospective” exhibition at the Rourke Art Museum. Photo: Angela Smith

BRINGING HUMANITIES TO LIFE

If you ask Christina Weber how she developed an interest in studying of how war and trauma impact veterans and their families she states simply, “This is a topic that has been with me most of my life. My father is a Vietnam veteran and our family life was impacted greatly by his experiences in Vietnam and his experiences as a veteran trying to figure out how to come back to civilian life.” Her childhood experience became the focus of her graduate school dissertation and is the theme of her book, Social Memory and War Narratives: Transmitted Trauma among Children of Vietnam Veterans.

During the last year, Weber, an associate professor of sociology at North Dakota State University, applied her research on memory and trauma to Project Unpack, a one-year program developed to initiate dialogues in the Fargo-Moorhead and North Dakota communities about the legacies of American wars. Her goal was to create space for veterans, their family members, and the larger community, to unpack— or in other words—talk freely, about complex topics such as life in the military, experiences of war, the return home, and readjusting to life as a civilian.

While most programs tailored for veterans focus only on the soldiers themselves, Weber’s approach encompassed the whole family. “I think we sometimes forget about how family experience the impact of war, since it touches them on a day-to-day and deeply personal level,” says Weber. “It’s hard, too, because family members often don’t think they have a story to tell, but when you start talking to them, you realize they have their own particular understanding of war that is impacted by their relationship with their veteran family member.”

Project Unpack included lectures from authors Tim O’Brien and Tom Bissell, as well as a literary and ceramics workshops, an oral history workshop, and the establishment of an oral history archive for the Fargo-Moorhead area. “North Dakota, although a small state, is home to nearly 58,000 veterans of war,” explains Weber. “They are not all the same, they do not fit stereotypes. Many of them face emotional, financial and family hardships. Some may seem to move forward easily with their families and communities, but they all live with a legacy and we want them to have a voice for that.”

To learn more, visit unpackstories.org

Christina D. Weber introducing the exhibition, “Project Unpack: A Retrospective,” at the opening reception on December 17, 2016 at the Rourke Art Museum.

Photo: Ginny Pick