Locked Down and Locked Up: A PrisonPandemic Exhibit
Between 2021 and 2022, Center associate director Patricia Pierson, along with Center interns, collaborated with a team of faculty and graduate students from Social Ecology, Sociology, and the School of the Arts to help design and launch a gallery exhibition of stories and art from the UCI PrisonPandemic Project. The PrisonPandemic team collected first-hand accounts from individuals incarcerated in California prisons during the Covid-19 lockdowns, when prison sites were closed to the public. The exhibition, "Locked Down and Locked Up," featured original artwork, voice recordings, and handwritten letters from the PrisonPandemic website archive.
Read coverage of the exhibition here:
Exhibit Sheds Light on Prison Experience (UCI Social Ecology)
UCI Opens Exhibit about Inmates' Covid-19 Experiences (The New University)
During the 2020-2021 academic year, the Center collaborated with the Humanities Center, the UCI Libraries, and the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation, as well as a number of community partners, on a year-long student internship program called "Stories from the Sea."
The "Stories from the Sea" project invited UCI undergraduates to partner with community residents in Newport Beach to record personal histories and memories of important encounters with the sea.
Students interns learned the following skills:
How to conduct interviews/oral histories with community members
How to conduct research in historical archives
How to preserve the memories of community members, particularly elders, through digitizing photographs and other memorabilia
How to “produce” stories through mixed media methods (digital narratives, podcasting, non-fiction storytelling, etc.).
How to work collaboratively with other student researchers/storytellers
Students were mentored by and received guidance by UCI faculty as well as staff at UCI Libraries and the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation.
The fall speaker series, hosted by the students of LJ 198: Storytelling and Production, brought together speakers from across the campus and the local community who shared insights, tips, and techniques for collecting, preserving, and sharing stories about our local beaches, oceans, and waterways. Learn more about our speakers at this link.
