HOMING VOICES
FALL 2026
WORKSHOP SERIES
In-Person Workshop Format
Fridays | 4:30–7:00 PM
Workshop 1 → Workshop 2 → Workshop 3 → Community Story Night
Workshops
Workshop 1: September 18, 2026
Workshop 2: October 23, 2026
Workshop 3: November 13, 2026
Community Story Night
December 11, 2026 | 4:30–7:00 PM
Location:
Learning Commons, Room 3304.
Darden College of Education and Professional Studies
Old Dominion University
Workshop 1
Contours of “Home”: Tracing Poetry and Memory in Migration History
September 18, 2026
Led by Dr. Luisa A. Igloria
Virginia’s 20th Poet Laureate (2020–2022)
Professor of Creative Writing, Old Dominion University
Focus
This keynote workshop explores how poetry can illuminate lived experience and reinterpret migration histories. Participants will reflect on the layered meanings of “home” through memory, place, and imagination.
What participants will do:
Engage in guided poetic writing exercises
Connect personal memory to historical landscapes of Hampton Roads and Virginia
Draft poetic or narrative responses inspired by migration histories
Reflect on how language shapes belonging
Workshop 2
Echoes of “Home”: Bi-/Multilingual Storytelling, Memory, and Belonging
October 23, 2026
Led by Dr. Jihea Maddamsetti
Associate Professor of Elementary Education, Old Dominion University
In collaboration with:
Dr. Abha Gupta
Dr. Lea Lee
Dr. KaaVonia Hinton
Focus
This workshop centers bi-/multilingual storytelling as a pedagogical approach to exploring migration, displacement, and belonging. Participants examine how language practices—across multiple languages and modalities—shape the telling and interpretation of stories of movement, identity, and home.
What participants will do:
Engage with biographical and bi-/multilingual texts representing migration and linguistic diversity
Analyze how language practices (e.g., translanguaging) shape narrative voice, meaning, and perspective
Design and conduct brief family- or community-based interviews to extend storytelling practices
Reflect on how multilingual practices can be integrated into classroom and community-based storytelling
Workshop 3
Tapestries of “Home”: Oral History and Public Memory
November 13, 2026
Led by Dr. Yonghee Suh
Professor of Social Studies, Old Dominion University
In collaboration with:
Dr. Seongryeong Yu
Focus
This session centers oral history as a humanities and pedagogical method for documenting, interpreting, and situating lived experiences of migration within broader historical and regional contexts. Participants examine how personal narratives become part of public memory through processes of collection, curation, and representation.
What participants will do:
Analyze oral history interviews using foundational interpretive frameworks
Engage with archival materials to contextualize personal narratives within regional migration histories
Trace connections between individual stories and broader patterns of migration, displacement, and settlement
Learn to curate digital oral history artifacts as pedagogical and public humanities tools for engaging migration, identity, and public memory (e.g., StoryMaps)
Community Story Night
December 11, 2026
The Homing Voices workshop series culminates in a public Story Night where participants share digital stories developed across the workshops. These stories bring together poetry, bi-/multilingual narratives, and oral history to reflect on migration, memory, and belonging in Hampton Roads and beyond.
Through this community gathering, educators, families, and local partners are invited to engage with stories that connect lived experience to broader historical and cultural contexts. Story Night creates a shared space for listening, reflection, and dialogue, highlighting storytelling as a public humanities practice.
Participation in sharing is optional.
Open to the public.
HOMING VOICES
FALL 2026
WORKSHOP SERIES
In-Person Workshop Format
Fridays | 5:00–7:30 PM
Workshop 1 → Workshop 2 → Workshop 3 → Community Story Night
Workshops
Workshop 1: September 18, 2026
Workshop 2: October 23, 2026
Workshop 3: November 13, 2026
Community Story Night
December 11, 2026 | 4:30–7:00 PM
Location:
Learning Commons, Room 3304.
Darden College of Education and Professional Studies
Old Dominion University
Workshop 1
Contours of “Home”: Tracing Poetry and Memory in Migration History
September 18, 2026
Led by Dr. Luisa A. Igloria
Virginia’s 20th Poet Laureate (2020–2022)
Professor of Creative Writing, Old Dominion University
Focus
This keynote workshop explores how poetry can illuminate lived experience and reinterpret migration histories. Participants will reflect on the layered meanings of “home” through memory, place, and imagination.
What participants will do:
Engage in guided poetic writing exercises
Connect personal memory to historical landscapes of Hampton Roads and Virginia
Draft poetic or narrative responses inspired by migration histories
Reflect on how language shapes belonging
Workshop 2
Echoes of “Home”: Bi-/Multilingual Storytelling, Memory, and Belonging
October 23, 2026
Led by Dr. Jihea Maddamsetti
Associate Professor of Elementary Education, Old Dominion University
In collaboration with:
Dr. Abha Gupta
Dr. Lea Lee
Dr. KaaVonia Hinton
Focus
This workshop centers bi-/multilingual storytelling as a pedagogical approach to exploring migration, displacement, and belonging. Participants examine how language practices—across multiple languages and modalities—shape the telling and interpretation of stories of movement, identity, and home.
What participants will do:
Engage with biographical and bi-/multilingual texts representing migration and linguistic diversity
Analyze how language practices (e.g., translanguaging) shape narrative voice, meaning, and perspective
Design and conduct brief family- or community-based interviews to extend storytelling practices
Reflect on how multilingual practices can be integrated into classroom and community-based storytelling
Workshop 3
Tapestries of “Home”: Oral History and Public Memory
November 13, 2026
Led by Dr. Yonghee Suh
Professor of Social Studies, Old Dominion University
In collaboration with:
Dr. Seongryeong Yu
Focus
This session centers oral history as a humanities and pedagogical method for documenting, interpreting, and situating lived experiences of migration within broader historical and regional contexts. Participants examine how personal narratives become part of public memory through processes of collection, curation, and representation.
What participants will do:
Analyze oral history interviews using foundational interpretive frameworks
Engage with archival materials to contextualize personal narratives within regional migration histories
Trace connections between individual stories and broader patterns of migration, displacement, and settlement
Learn to curate digital oral history artifacts as pedagogical and public humanities tools for engaging migration, identity, and public memory (e.g., StoryMaps)
Community Story Night
December 11, 2026
The Homing Voices workshop series culminates in a public Story Night where participants share digital stories developed across the workshops. These stories bring together poetry, bi-/multilingual narratives, and oral history to reflect on migration, memory, and belonging in Hampton Roads and beyond.
Through this community gathering, educators, families, and local partners are invited to engage with stories that connect lived experience to broader historical and cultural contexts. Story Night creates a shared space for listening, reflection, and dialogue, highlighting storytelling as a public humanities practice.
Participation in sharing is optional.
Open to the public.