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Jean Bernard Restout (French, Paris 1732–1797 Paris) Le Retour du Parlement, ca. 1774 French, Etching; Sheet: 8 11/16 × 11 13/16 in. (22 × 30 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Stephen A. Geiger Gift, 2016 (2016.35) http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/707457

Political Theory and Transitional Justice

Transitional justice refers to the variety of legal, political, and social processes that occur as a society rebuilds after war; it includes war crimes trials, truth commissions, and the creation of memorials. Although the term "transitional justice" is a recent one, the philosophical issues contained within it are at the core of political philosophy.

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Black Middletown Lives: The Future of Middletown’s African American Past

In this service learning course, students did hands-on history by uncovering, preserving, and sharing Middletown's rich African American past. We focused on the history of the Beman Triangle. This African American neighborhood, now part of Wesleyan's campus, served as a regional and national antislavery and Underground Railroad center and home to one of the nation's first handful of independent Black churches. Students partnered with local archives, libraries, and museums to help preserve and share this neighborhood's remarkable history. Our projects included building a website and an exhibit to share this history with the Wesleyan and Middletown communities.

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On Evidence: Archives, Museums, and Prisons

This course introduced an interdisciplinary study of the idea of evidence in connection to the modern development of archives, museums, and prisons by setting it in a contemporary dialog with discourses on state violence, incarceration, and refugeetude. This course first established historical and theoretical connections between carcerality, Western archival record-keeping practices (e.g., scientific grids, mugshots, taxonomies, and forms of surveillance), and museological frameworks developed during the transition from the 19th to the 20th century.

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Visualizing the Past: Contesting Space with Digital Mapping

This course gave students the skills to challenge common narratives and reconceptualize spaces through the practice of digital mapping. Students surveyed the latest in spatial and digital scholarship while also learning how to produce community-engaged mapping projects. This course addressed foundational questions and themes in public humanities related to recovery, repair, co-creation, and community engagement. Course work included reviewing existing digital projects, identifying community partners for a collaborative mapping project, learning data and mapping methods, and exhibiting a mapping project.

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