This project explores how visual and oral family narratives create foundations for emotional resilience. Using a “snowball sampling” or “chain-referral” approach to meet with a wide range of young adults living in Rome, I will conduct semistructured oral interviews based on the “Do You Know? 20 Questions About Family Stories” study by Dr. Marshall Duke and Dr. Robyn Fivush of Emory University. I will seek a diverse group of subjects, including refugees, people who have lost loved ones to COVID-19, and others who have come up against challenging circumstances. Collaborating with Italian photographers and the subjects themselves, we will create new imagery, document ephemera that the subjects provide, and use material from the interviews as well as archival photographs from the Academy’s archive to create visual representations of family narratives which could take shape as albums, small-run books, and/or exhibitions.

The photograph of Jennifer Pastore was taken by Guillaume Bonn.