What the Heart Remembers: the Women and Children of Darfur

Barbara Lewis, University of South Florida

Abstract

In 2009, the University of South Florida (USF) Libraries received materials from Waging Peace which included transcripts of interviews with female genocide survivors and original children’s drawings depicting the atrocities of genocide in Darfur. These materials are particularly significant in that they were used as evidence of genocide in Darfur in the International Criminal Court.

The children’s drawings have been digitized by USF and are an important element in the development of a web portal for the new Holocaust and Genocide Studies Center. In this paper the Coordinator for Digital Collections addresses both the digitization process as well as ongoing efforts to develop a web presence that is accessible to scholars worldwide. The College of The Arts librarian discusses her proposal to the Theatre and Dance faculty for a performance piece inspired by these materials because she viewed this as an ideal opportunity to promote the Library’s resources and initiatives. The collaborative outreach efforts to promote this collection are reported and the project What the Heart Remembers: The Women and Children of Darfur is born.

This paper focuses on the acquisition and digitization of these materials, technology related to the visual arts, ongoing efforts to develop a web presence, faculty outreach and multidisciplinary collaboration with the Library at the core of the collaboration.