3 min read | Categories: Blog |

In March and April, Historic Congressional Cemetery will be hosting Story Circle sessions in the chapel. Story Circles bring people together in small, facilitated groups to share stories and memories shaped by their experiences at the cemetery. Together, our stories build a record of community care, connection, and collective memory, revealing what makes this place meaningful to you, to us, to DC.

Congressional Cemetery is known for its history, but it is also a place where everyday activities—walking, volunteering, visiting, caring—continue to shape its meaning. Story Circles are open to volunteers, neighbors, dog walkers, gardeners, historians, descendants, and visitors—anyone with a connection to the cemetery, whether long-standing or newly-formed. No preparation is required.

You will have five opportunities to share your HCC stories:

Recording the stories you share will be Dr. Michelle LaFrance, associate professor of writing and rhetoric in the Department of English at George Mason University. She will be assisted by students enrolled in her spring semester Community and Public Writing course.

Dr LaFrance (Ph.D., University of Washington, 2009) is a feminist critical ethnographer, who teaches courses on community writing, feminist methodologies, writing studies, and critical pedagogy. Michelle has published on institutional ethnography, the materialities of academic labor, e-portfolios, e-research, and writing center pedagogy. Her current work has her participating in urban communities, studying discourses of volunteerism and belonging, and treating the evolution of research practice and sensibilities in Writing Studies.

In 2021, Dr. LaFrance was awarded the College Composition and Communication Research Impact award for her book, Institutional Ethnography: A Theory of Practice for Writing Studies Researchers (USUP 2019). This book was also awarded “Honorable Mention” in the 2021 Best Book category from the International Writing Across the Curriculum Association.

Please consider sharing your memories at a Story Circle session. You, the community, are a huge part of what makes Historic Congressional Cemetery special.

You Can Sit With Us, I Hope U Stay  
3 min read | Categories: Blog |

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