Recently, conversations reignited around appropriate presentations of so-called “difficult” histories like white supremacy, colonization, and other racial injustices, and how those histories challenge long-standing, narrow, or often inaccurate interpretations. This session dives into how museums and other memory spaces can and must acknowledge and host those difficult conversations and the important histories they can teach. It challenges the idea of them as “difficult” and asks guests to explore why we value some interpretations over others.

About the Presenter

George Garner (he/him) earned his M.A. in Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program where he gained experience in museum administration, exhibitions, and collections care at such well-known institutions as the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. He has dedicated his career to exploring how museums and memory spaces can help people make meaning from traumatic histories and use history to work actively toward change today. Since 2012, he has served the Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center, a space that, for thirty years, operated as a segregated city-owned swimming pool.

What is the Indiana Humanities Advancing Racial Equity Speakers Bureau?

Indiana Humanities has curated a speakers bureau of talks and workshops by Hoosier scholars and experts. From legacies of incarceration to conversations about the documentation of Black Hoosier history, the speakers provide a variety of points of entry to join the statewide conversation. Indiana Humanities will organize this program throughout the Advancing Racial Equity theme. Any tax-exempt organization in Indiana can apply, including libraries, schools, community centers, local government organizations, and others.

What is Advancing Racial Equity?

Advancing Racial Equity is an ongoing initiative from Indiana Humanities that encourages Hoosiers to facilitate and discuss humanities-based conversations about the history of race and racism, the Black experience in Indiana and efforts toward racial equity.

Can you tell me about the speakers involved?

Our 2024 speakers for the Advancing Racial Equity can be found in our catalog on the page https://indianahumanities.org/arespeakersbureau/