Bringing War Home roadshow visiting statewide campuses

Two Utah State University professors started the Bringing War Home project in 2021, giving community members the opportunity to share objects from war and their accompanying stories. 

There are three main pillars in the project: an artifact and oral history roadshow, an object of war course and book discussion groups.  

Molly Cannon, assistant professor of anthropology, serves as co-director of the project. Cannon works with Susan Grayzel, a history professor who serves as the other co-director.  

“The purpose really is to record these stories,” Cannon said. “And I would say to initiate these conversations in our communities across the state.” 

The project has a program with Utah Public Radio where oral stories are shared in episodes over the air.  

Katie White, an intern at UPR, was assigned to produce the Bringing War Home program.  

“I do the oral histories,” White said. “If they want to record with us, then those will be turned into episodes for this series, and then I also clean up the full audio for their archives. So the full interviews will be available, and then we’ll have these, like, four-minute episodes.” 

There have been eight roadshows so far, with two upcoming. On April 13, the group will be at the USU Blanding Campus. On April 15, they will be at the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum in Price.  

Cannon said the roadshows usually take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and are an open house format. Anyone can come for free without needing to sign up.  

The purpose of the roadshows is for people to bring in their items and have them recorded.  

“We set up these different stations,” Cannon said. “We have the documentation desk where, you know, if you’d brought your item in, I would be asking you some questions, and taking notes. And then once we were done collecting that information, you would take it over to the photo booth, where one of our students would photograph the object and multiple views so that it can go up on our archive.” 

They do not collect the objects that are brought into the roadshows. Instead, they record all the information they can, including pictures.  

White brings recording equipment along to the roadshows and records the oral histories in a separate room.

According to Cannon, they usually travel to these events with a team of four to six students and invite students at the statewide campuses they’re visiting to help out.  

The project includes book discussion kits about the book “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. Cannon said they have held book discussions around the state, including most recently with USU’s honors program.  

An objects of war course will be offered at the university in spring 2024.  

Annika Shinn is working towards her master’s of history and is studying queer history. She is currently working as a grad student assistant for the project. 

Shinn said the project opens up space for certain conversations that are not normally had. 

“I know we’re hoping that people having their objects brought in will give a starting point to those dialogues. Like, you have a family object, it might be a lot easier to get your dad to talk about his time in the war or just to talk about war in general,” Shinn said. “So I think opening up those conversations around a really difficult topic, and having a starting point for those, is really one of the biggest parts of this.”