Kolleen Guy, associate professor of history and associate dean for academic services at Duke Kunshan University, has received a grant from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for a project that explores how museums preserve and share the stories of civilian war victims across borders.
The grant is part of UNESCO’s Transnational Heritage Joint Research program, which supports international projects that promote shared cultural memory and historical understanding across borders.
Guy co-leads the project, titled “Museums as Transnational Heritage Hubs: Civilian War Victims, Memory Networks, and Global Recognition,” along with Yujie Zhu of the Australian National University and Jay Winter of Yale University.
The research focuses on museums—especially those dedicated to Jewish refugees during World War II in Asia and the experiences of “comfort women” across East Asia—and how they serve as places where memory travels, communities connect, and shared understanding grows.
“This project brings together scholars, curators and artists to explore how societies remember and represent civilian suffering across borders,” Guy said. “Our goal is to document and visualize the networks — familial, institutional and emotional — that have sustained memory practices in the aftermath of war, displacement and humanitarian crisis.”
“We are especially interested in sites and stories that have been neglected or overlooked in national narratives, such as refugee safe zones, women’s domestic memory work and unofficial memorials,” she added.
Guy, a transnational historian, is known for her earlier work on refugee movements, wartime humanitarianism and cultural memory. She is also the author of “When Champagne Became French: Wine and the Making of a National Identity,” an award-winning study of nationalism and collective identity.
The project builds on foundational support from DKU’s Humanities Research Center (HRC) and combines traditional historical research with digital tools such as mapping technology, mobile exhibitions and multimedia storytelling.
“We are developing an open-access digital archive that uses geographic information systems (GIS) tools to map memory networks, tracing not only physical routes of exile and refuge but also the relationships and institutions that sustain transnational remembrance,” Guy said.
At its core, the project raises pressing questions: In a world shaped by war, displacement and cultural erasure, how can we remember civilian suffering? And how can heritage practices become more inclusive and participatory?
“The project speaks to urgent global questions: How do we remember civilian suffering in a world marked by war, forced migration and cultural erasure? How can heritage practices become more inclusive and participatory?” Guy said. “Our work contributes to international conversations about transitional justice, cultural memory and refugee representation.”
She said DKU has provided essential support at every stage, “from grant development to student research to institutional partnerships.”
“The HRC has offered a home for our research team, providing early funding and ongoing administrative support,” Guy said. “DKU’s emphasis on global learning and interdisciplinary research has made it an ideal environment for a project of this scope and ambition.”
In addition to the UNESCO project, Guy recently published a new book with Winter titled “Statelessness After Arendt: European Refugees in China and the Pacific During the Second World War.” Published in May 2025 by Manchester University Press, the book explores the displacement of Jewish and political refugees from Europe to cities including Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney.
Drawing on archival sources, oral histories and transnational memory studies, the book examines how stateless individuals navigated life in places like Shanghai and Sydney, challenging Eurocentric narratives of wartime exile.
