Curating and Re-Curating the Wars in Vietnam and Iraq
Professor Christine Sylvester, University of Connecticut.
On 12 January, Professor Christine Sylvester of the University of Connecticut delivered a talk on ‘Curating and Re-Curating America’s Wars in Vietnam and Iraq’. Professor Sylvester is one of America’s most prominent scholars, particularly in the field of Feminist International Relations. During the seminar she discussed her recent research on portrayals of war in artwork, museums, memorials and cemeteries, among other places that rarely receive scholarly attention. The bulk of her talk focused on a critique of the way the wars in Vietnam and Iraq have been portrayed as part of the Smithsonian Museum’s permanent exhibition of The Price of Freedom: Americans at War. She also discussed the way in which families of soldiers killed in action have decorated the official gravestones of their loved ones.
