[ecrea] Digital history project "Proud & Torn: A Visual Memoir of Hungarian History"

*Groundbreaking Interactive History of Hungary Released*



Putting the turmoil of Hungary today in vivid context, an ambitious new 
digital history project, /Proud &Torn: A Visual Memoir of Hungarian 
History/, has been released at proudandtorn.org 
<http://proudandtorn.org/><https://proudandtorn.us18.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50935f03e64af9ea520c12485&id=408540d065&e=281e99b7c9>.




As a “visual memoir,” /Proud & Torn/ tells the story of the ups and 
downs of a Hungarian peasant family over generations. The digital 
project features nearly a thousand images, many of which have never been 
publicly viewed before, alongside graphic maps and drawings, to make the 
complicated story of Hungarian and Eastern European history accessible 
to anyone, from children to adults.




“The project is inspired by picture books, graphic novels, and the 
latest developments in online animation,” said project director and 
creator Bettina Fabos, a professor of Interactive Digital Studies at the 
University of Northern Iowa. “We have layered many images into 
photomontages and made parts of photos move as a person scrolls through 
the project. The many images make history come alive, and the family 
photos of everyday people make this history feel real and approachable.”




/Proud & Torn/ features Fabos’ own Hungarian family’s photographs and 
stories about their lives. The project also includes stories and photos 
of other Hungarian citizens and historical figures.  To craft the 
timeline-based story, Fabos worked closely with two historians, Drs. 
Leslie Waters and Kristina Poznan, who helped construct the narrative 
over sixteen chapters, from 1848 to 1956. The history reveals the 
dramatic and often horrific events that led one family—like Hungary 
itself—to be irreparably torn: two world wars, the Holocaust, and more 
than a century of instability with competing regimes of autocracy, 
fascism, democracy, and communism.



“/Proud & Torn/ perfectly demonstrates how digital history has the power 
to introduce people to historical content that may have never been on 
their radar,” Waters explained. “Our work combines critical historical 
analysis and engaging storytelling so that readers can understand how 
real people are affected by larger historical processes. It also shines 
a light on an area of the world that is poorly understood but critically 
important to twenty-first century politics.”



The project got its start in 2013, when Fabos, Waters, and Poznan were 
all Fulbright scholars in Hungary. The project grew to include a 
production team of designer Dana Potter; three web developers, Collin 
Cahill, Jacob Espenscheid, and Connor Thorson; and animator Isaac Campbell.



*CONTACT: *


Bettina Fabos, (Creator), Professor, Department of Communication 
Studies, University of Northern Iowa: (fabos /at/ uni.edu) 
<mailto:(fabos /at/ uni.edu)> <mailto:(fabos /at/ uni.edu) <mailto:(fabos /at/ uni.edu)>>


Leslie Waters, (Editor and Advisor), Assistant Professor, Randolph-Macon 
College: (lesliewaters /at/ rmc.edu) 
<mailto:(lesliewaters /at/ rmc.edu)> <mailto:(lesliewaters /at/ rmc.edu) 
<mailto:(lesliewaters /at/ rmc.edu)>>


Kristina Poznan (Editor and Advisor) Visiting Assistant Professor, La 
Salle University: (kepoznan /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(kepoznan /at/ gmail.com)> <mailto:(kepoznan /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(kepoznan /at/ gmail.com)>>




*

**Praise for /Proud & Torn/:*


The groundbreaking interactive website has received advanced praise from 
journalists, historians, archivists, and digital artists.



“With nearly 1,000 images included in the form of photographs, maps, 
illustrations, animations, and film clips as a part of a fascinating, 
innovative, and moving website, the necessarily personal and enriching 
story in /Proud & Torn/ should be a model for all who teach and work in 
the field of immersive storytelling. A startling achievement.”


- *Paul Lester, *Ph.D., School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging 
Communication, University of Texas-Dallas



“The digital interactive site, /Proud and Torn/, is an important and 
highly creative demonstration of the potentials of public digital archives.”


-* István Rév, *Ph.D., Director, Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society 
Archives, Budapest, Hungary



“/Proud and Torn/ is an outstanding project that will change the way 
public historians produce histories in a digital environment.”


- *Leisl Carr Childers, *Ph.D., Department of History, Colorado State 
University



“I have used it in my courses on twentieth century East Central European 
history and plan on using it in my general modern European history 
survey courses. My students have also enthusiastically embraced the 
historical narrative in all its complexity and are invested in the lives 
and futures of the Fabos family.”


-* Emily Gioielli, *Ph.D., Book Review Editor, /East Central Europe/, 
Missouri Western State University



"Proudandtorn.com is an incredible contribution to the field of Visual 
Communication, and more broadly to digital humanities...I was blown away 
by this work."


- *Ira Greenberg*, Professor and Director, Center of Creative 
Computation, Southern Methodist University, Dallas



“The /Proud & Torn/ website is an exquisite representation of public 
scholarship.”


-* Berkley Hudson*, Ph.D., University of Missouri School of Journalism


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