Session Abstract

This panel takes up the problem of how public history grapples with the issue of justice by engaging with particular sites of historical contestation in South Africa, the United States, and Cuba.  Interrogating how history engages (or refuses to engage) raw and controversial historical legacies in diverse venues:  a South African Prison-turned-historical site, courts of historical justice in the US and elsewhere, a formerly Cherokee-owned plantation home and site of African American slavery turned State historical site, classroom engagement with an international collaboration, Guantanamo Public Memory Project, and the Sites of Conscience project, these panelists all offer thought-provoking perspectives on how Public History constitutes and essential location for critical engagement with the problem of historical justice.