Marshall Fire Story Project by Kathryn Goldfarb and Jason Hogstad

The goal of the Marshall Fire Story Project (MFSP) is to create a community archive of experiences with the Marshall Fire and aftermath. The MFSP provides a space for affected individuals to share their story, and offers the entire community a place to have their voices heard and added to the historical record. The Project will also capture hundreds of GoFundMe campaigns created in response to the fire. The Project’s index of these campaigns will document who received community funding and at what levels, how affected individuals understood their experiences, and differing experiences of the fire within the community.

Artist Bio

Kathryn Goldfarb is a cultural and medical anthropologist whose research explores the intersection of social relationships, public policy, and embodied experiences. Her work examines how these dynamics influence well-being and contribute to the co-production of scientific knowledge and subjective experiences, with a particular focus on the role of narrative creation. Goldfarb’s first book project, Fragile Kinships: Child Welfare and Well-Being in Japan (Cornell University Press, 2024), delves into how social inclusion and exclusion shape holistic well-being. Through longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork with individuals connected to the Japanese child welfare system, she investigates the stakes of family disconnection in a society where family is considered the foundational social unit. Her project critically examines the ways in which kinship ideologies intersect with Japanese national and cultural identity, exploring how these discourses define what is considered “normal” and how such concepts of normalcy circulate globally in the fields of human development, child rights, and social welfare. 

Jason Hogstad is a PhD student in the History Department at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he studies the environmental history of the U.S. West. His academic work focuses on the environmental aspects of the urban/rural divide – which means he spends much of his time trying to understand how and why westerners in cities and in the country have argued about pest control strategies ranging from ritual rabbit slaughter to prairie dog poisoning. He has worked as a museum educator to develop and lead tours, oversee volunteer training programs and participate in all phases of exhibit curation. Hogstad is interested in engaging with communities who seek to share their histories with the broader public and he will bring his extensive background in developing and training others for public presentations, years of archival research experience and a familiarity with graphic design software to such endeavors.