Stories

Renee Billingslea (Art and Art History) published a book chapter entitled "A Visual Artist’s Approach to Material Culture: Addressing Trauma and Terror" in Objects of Atrocity: Material Culture and the Challenges of Difficult Histories (pgs. 254-267) Purdue University Press, on June 6, 2026.

The vast majority of people throughout history have left few written traces. That is especially the case for those who were brutally forced from their homes, stripped of their possessions, and swiftly imprisoned, enslaved, or murdered. Objects of Atrocity: Material Culture and the Challenges of Difficult Histories addresses how we return humanity to these people in order to avoid their erasure from history. Academics and practitioners from a variety of disciplines and cross-disciplinary approaches grapple with the challenges and possibilities relating to the collection, conservation, storage, and display of objects in the aftermath of mass atrocities. This collection confronts a range of difficult histories including the Holocaust; the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, former Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Kurdistan; the incarceration of Japanese Americans; and a diverse range of crimes committed against Native Americans, African Americans, Roma, and Sinti people. The goal of this volume is to restore the dignity of these people and communities through the examination of the material culture left behind.