Social work students projects to highlight NC communities

Graduate students from the UNC School of Social Work released an art installation titled “Hear Our Voices” which highlights the stories of marginalized North Carolinians.

The project, which was completed by all 17 members of professor Iris Carlton-LaNey’s class, contained video recordings and written statements and was imagined as a digital time capsule that captured the stories of people whose voices may sometimes go unheard. 

First-year masters of social work student Lynn Wetherbee came up with the idea and led the project. She said Carlton-LaNey challenged her and other students to think of a final assignment that could make a significant impact on the world. 

“I wanted it to be people just sort of reflecting on what it’s like to live at this place in North Carolina and the United States at this time,” she said.

Wetherbee said they interviewed many different people including Muslim-Americans, Latinx immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community. The subjects were given optional questions to answer, but were encouraged to tell their stories in a way they were comfortable with.

“I want people to be able to hear and understand the stories and voices of people who are often left out of the conversation, and who don’t have a seat at the table, to recognize what they have to say,” Wetherbee said.

Rob Garland, a first-year masters of social work student who assisted with the project, said concerns about the election of President Donald Trump and the current political climate were among the most common themes in the interviews.

“I think a lot of people would point to politics and say the political climate is kind of the antecedent to the cultural climate," he said. "That was a cause for concern for a lot of people — not everyone, but I definitely think that was a common theme."

Although this art installation was only featured in the UNC School of Social Work for one day, Wetherbee said this summer she will be working to compile all of the materials from the “Hear our Voices” art installation for the UNC Libraries' Southern Historical Collection. 

Elizabeth Anderson, first-year masters of social work student who assisted with the project, said she hopes “Hear our Voices” can help people better empathize with the marginalized subjects that were featured.

“There’s a lot of communities that are either stigmatized or othered and ignorance about these communities leads to fear, and fear is what leads to oppression and persecution, so I hope that this could close the gap a little bit and help people understand what another person’s experience is like," she said. 

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