Austin Slave Quarters Experience: A Weekend for Community: Panel Discussion

Saturday, April 23, 2022
2:00 PM 4:00 PM 14:00 16:00

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Austin Slave Quarters: A Weekend for Community

Panel Discussion: Preserving Memory at Historic Sites

April 23, 2022 | 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM CT

Join the Neill-Cochran House Museum for a moderated discussion about the importance of Historic Preservation in the pursuit of racial equity. This panel will bring together the perspective of various stakeholders (institutional, private, academic, and activist) to discuss current trends and experiences in Historic Preservation.

TARA DUDLEY

Tara Dudley is a Lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines the contributions of African American builders and architects to the American built environment, focusing on the antebellum and Reconstruction eras in Austin and Texas and the architectural activities of New Orleans’ gens de couleur libres (free people of color). She was the recipient of the Carter Manny Award from the Graham Foundation for best writing in a dissertation and has served as a senior architectural historian for HHM & Associates, Inc. in Austin, Texas. She has been involved in various aspects of historic preservation, historical research, and writing and consults on projects across the nation. She is the author of Building Antebellum New Orleans: Free People of Color and Their Influence (University of Texas Press, 2021) and a forthcoming biography on African American architect John Saunders Chase. A native of Lafayette, Louisiana, who now calls the Austin area home, Dr. Dudley obtained her doctorate in Architectural History and master’s degree in Historic Preservation from UT-Austin and holds a bachelor’s degree in Art History from Princeton University.

ROWENA DASCH

Rowena Houghton Dasch has led the Neill-Cochran House Museum as Executive Director since the end of 2013. She holds an MA and a Ph.D in American Art from the University of Texas at Austin and an AB in Art and Archaeology from Princeton University. During her tenure at the NCHM, Rowena has focused on increasing the diversity of the displays, and in particular on bringing an active program of temporary exhibitions that focus on the visual arts as well as on site and Austin history to the Museum. Her day-to-day work covers all facets of the Museum’s operations and the historic property’s preservation, including planning and implementation of a major structural restoration project, annual fundraising, educational programming for adults and families, and collections management.

NELL GOTTLIEB

Nell Gottlieb works in multiple media to reexamine her coming of age, white and female in the Jim Crow South. Her ongoing project, Nostos Algos, considers the pain of returning to the South after a long absence, while confronting the racist mythologies and complicated legacies of the region. Gottlieb recently completed the Block Program of the Glassell School of Art at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and she has studied with many artists and craft practitioners in the U.S. and in Europe. She has shown her work in national, regional, and local juried shows and has two works in the Hobby Airport Collection. She serves as past-president of ClayHouston, has been on the board of the Visual Arts Alliance, and is a member of the Texas Sculpture Group. She holds a BA and MA (psychology) from Emory University and a PhD (sociology) from Boston University. She is professor emeritus of public health education at The University of Texas at Austin, where she taught from 1980-2011. A native of Alabama, she moved to Texas in 1980.

JOE MCGILL

Joseph McGill, Jr. is a history consultant for Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina, and the founder and director of The Slave Dwelling Project. Previously, as a field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Mr. McGill worked to revitalize the Sweet Auburn commercial district in Atlanta, Georgia, and to develop a management plan for the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area. He is a former executive director of the African American Museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a former director of history and culture at Penn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina. He has also served as a National Park Service park ranger at Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston.