Drawing lessons from The Natural History Museum’s ongoing project “We Refuse to Die,” NHM Research Director Steve Lyons explores how communities are pushing back against the dominant representation of so-called “sacrifice zones” as sites of powerlessness and victimization, metabolizing grief into collective strength and community power.

In this guest lecture at Brown University, NHM Director Beka Economopoulos links the theoretical concerns of public humanities — history and memory, museums and memorials, expertise and experience, community cultural development, and material culture — with the tactical work of an activist, museum-as-platform practice.