Anna Muller, the Frank and Mary Padzieski Endowed Professor in Polish/Polish American/Eastern European Studies, organized the “Scars of History and Healing Spaces” workshop, which took place last semester at the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk, Poland, pictured here.
Walking around Gdańsk, Poland, during a summer Study Abroad modern Polish history course, something sounded a bit familiar to UM-Dearborn faculty.
The Gdańsk tour guide, a cultural anthropologist, shared how the exodus of industry took jobs and a sense of community identity with it. The guide spoke of shipyards, but College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters educators thought of Detroit’s automobiles.
A former resident of Gdańsk who now lives in Detroit, Muller wanted to do more than make a mental connection. So she collaboratively worked with international connections and CASL colleagues to create the Post-Industrial Stories project.
What emerged from Muller’s coordination was a cross-cultural dialogue with artists, activists and academics from five cities across the world — Detroit, Gdańsk, Glasgow, Narva in Estonia, Kaliningrad in Russia — that have been strongly impacted by post-industrial economic dislocation. Like Gdańsk, Glasgow was know for the shipping industry; Kaliningrad and Narva, for textiles.
The three-day workshop, “Scars of History and Healing Spaces,” which took place last semester at the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk, explored the historical, sociological, and artistic potential of cities and communities whose identity was centered around industries that are no longer present in the area like they once were.
Workshop presentation topics included social heritage of post-industrial communities, makers and the expression of humanity in a post-industrial city, and redesigning industrial sites into multidimensional districts. Information was also shared in non-verbal ways, like modern interpretive dance and photography.
Sociology Professor Paul Draus, Hershock and Muller also participated.
Muller said the Post-Industrial Stories project sparked dialogue between the five cities; her next project goal is to bring students into the conversation. She’d like to create an exchange program where university students can hear, see and learn what’s been experienced in other post-industrial cities and take part in a locally driven social project.