Hauntings, Remembering, and Aesthetics

"Schools, and the process of education, leave in their wake liminal spaces that blur the borders between what was, what is, and what could be. Schools that suffer closure are not merely artifacts from the past, but they also remain as talismans that protect and project our hopes for possible futures. Reflective educational narratives around the lifeworlds of schools that were closed serve to resist historical erasure, sustain present action, and motivate our efforts to shape educational possibility. Combining stories of remembrance and aspiration with artworks that layer image and text, Kristy Ulrich Papczun evokes the ghostly echoes of what once was in two urban Chicago schools, which in turn conjure what our educational aims for tomorrow might be."

Richard Siegesmund, co-author Visual Methods of Inquiry: Images as Research

"In Hauntings, Remembering, and Aesthetics: Using Artmaking and Storytelling to Rethink School Closures, Kristy Ulrich Papczun helps us reimagine what it means to grieve, resist, and remember. Blending community narratives and expressive palimpsests, this book offers a radical intervention into how we understand school closures—not as final acts of erasure or as empty buildings but as living sites of historical resonance and ongoing possibility. This book reframes closed schools as active, haunted spaces where memories converge to reveal how spaces once filled with teaching and learning continue to echo histories of race, power, and resistance. This text is essential for anyone committed to justice and the power of transformative art."

Danny Bernard Martin, Professor, University of Illinois, Chicago

"Through her careful analytical lens and deeply caring heart, Dr. Ulrich Papczun presents a tale of urban educational justice beneficial for all readers. Hauntings, Remembering, and Aesthetics: Using Artmaking and Storytelling to Rethink School Closures reclaims the discourse of community wealth through a process she names ‘remembering’ – a research approach that takes patterns of systemic public- goods inequities and threads asset framings through collected narrative, surfacing remembered humanity and beauty into the present.

Through her three-dimensional countenancing, Dr. Ulrich Papczun liberates and lifts the discourse of contested urban spaces and related schooling disparities for educators, activists, and artists – rendered in a moving account that should be read across academic, activist, and arts spaces alike.

The counter narratives woven throughout Dr. Ulrich Papczun’s brilliant book come to life in complex form through the beauty of her homage-driven multi-layered collages, and provide diverse points of entry into the beauties and sorrows of persistent inequities in robust urban communities. Her rigorous process builds on arts methodologies and community epistemologies, and offers scholars, teachers, and students alike the chance to envision counter-storying and its role in analytical framings of urban education for decades to come."

Victoria Trinder, Ph.D., College of Education University of Illinois Chicago, author of

"Hauntings, Remembering, and Aesthetics is a poignant reminder of the stories often forgotten when school districts decide to close a school, and community members rally to keep it open. The physical school buildings, once filled with children learning, now haunt our imagination and are a reminder that resilience and resistance are found in the communities and schools that make up a neighborhood. Dr. Ulrich Papczun’s writing models how to be critical and self-reflective in the role we play when schools are closed, and in the process, invites us to be witnesses to the joy, community, and resilience that exist in the school communities that continue carrying the memories of the lessons learned. This book provides an opportunity to everyone who reads it to reflect on the importance of school communities and the brilliance that students, staff, parents, administrators, and community members hold."

William Estrada, Community Artist & Clinical Assistant Professor, UIC School of Art & Art History

List of Figures

Introduction

Part I STORIES WE TELL ABOUT SCHOOLS

Chapter One
Ghosts, Hauntings, Palimpsests

Chapter Two
The Power of Stories

Part II PORTRAITS OF REMEMBERING

Chapter Three
Finding Andersen

Chapter Four
Searching for Schiller

Chapter Five
Remembering

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

About the Author

Index

Kristy Ulrich Papczun

Kristy Ulrich Papczun obtained her doctorate and master’s degree from UIC after having taught in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) for almost ten years. Kristy’s place-based research examines school closures, and how race and class intersect with school policies. Before becoming a teacher, Kristy worked in the design world. She maintains a deep belief in the power of aesthetics and storytelling, especially in disrupting the dominant narratives and deficit-based stories we tell about urban schools. As a CPS parent, educator, and advocate, her work rests at the nexus of her experiences and identities. She uses arts-based methods, such as portraiture, photography, and collaging, to engage in conversations about schools. Her research historicizes school sites as a way to reconsider how the past is always present, drawing from disciplines such as urban planning and critical geography. She champions work that reaches beyond the academy, taking inspiration from community members, educators, and artists.