Attend a Roadshow

Since 2021, this NEH-funded interdisciplinary community-facing project has connected Utah State University statewide to localities across Utah by archiving objects and the vital, personal stories they embody in a digital, publicly accessible archive. Its primary aim is to engage veterans, military families, and the broader Utah/Mountain West community in better understanding the experiences and legacies of America’s modern wars. By helping to host roadshow events with community partners (including the Utah Department of Veteran and Military Affairs, Blue Star Families of Utah and in Cache Valley, the Dan Gyllenskog Veterans Resource Center), to collect stories and objects and then building a digital archive and more recently a travelling museum exhibit, USU students have developed transferable skills from the interpersonal to the technological. At our roadshows thus far, students have assisted in all aspects of collecting and recording objects and accompanying oral histories. Veterans have praised the professionalism and attentiveness of our students, and students have described participating in these public events as life changing. Thus, one additional core aim of the project has become creating spaces that bridge the campus community and the war-involved public