USU Bringing War Home Roadshow Event to Visit USU Moab in October

The USU Bringing War Home Project will host its sixth community event on Saturday, Oct. 22 at the Utah State University Moab campus. The event is scheduled from 10 am – 2 pm and is free and open to the public. Through a national endowment for the Humanities Dialogues on the Experience of War grant led by two Utah State University faculty– Susan Grayzel from history and Molly Cannon from anthropology– the Bringing War Home Project is working in partnership with Utah Public Radio to document the objects and memories associated with America’s modern wars.

Many people are familiar with wartime souvenirs, whether having direct experience with the battlefield or not. Some of these objects are personal, a way for veterans to preserve their experiences. Often, they are treasure objects from relatives who have participated in the wars of the 20th century; special things that linger on as memorials that help families tell the stories of how beloved fathers, grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers, cousins, and siblings contributed to the larger history of war. The “Bringing War Home” project invites the community– military and civilian alike– to connect with the history of war through sharing wartime objects and the personal stories that surround them.

“We are thrilled that the “Bringing War Home” Roadshow is coming to southeastern Utah,” said Lianna Etchberger, associate vice president for USU Moab. “I married into a military family and discovered that sharing stories of war have a profound way of creating bonds and connection. I invite everyone with artifacts to come and share their stories. Please join us, even if you don’t have something to share, so you can hear your neighbor’s story firsthand. This is a wonderful opportunity to preserve for future generations the personal impacts that war has had on southeastern Utah across generations.

USU welcomes the community to bring wartime objects to the USU Moab campus on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022. Students and volunteers are eager to document and preserve these special items so they can be shared with the community. Such public history preserved in a digital archive will enable students, educators, and future generations to engage with these important sources of our common past. Working with Utah Public Radio, the project also hopes to record the family narratives that accompany such objectives to appreciate fully the long-term impact of war. Using the objects and stories collected at these roadshows, USU will be working with USU Digital Initiatives to create an accessible, public digital archive and exhibition “Effects of War: Stories and Objects from Utah.”

As part of the roadshow events, UPR's Tom Williams will conduct a live taping of Access Utah, beginning at 10 a.m. All are invited to attend the taping.

One of the main goals of the roadshow is to create opportunities for veterans, military families, students, and communities to join in ongoing conversations on how personal objects and stories can help others understand modern war. For more information about the event, please visit: https://www.usu.edu/mountainwest/bringing-war-home.

The community is also invited to record an oral history account of their objects with UPR. To record an oral history, visit https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home.