Central America

The small country of El Salvador has played a big role in the life of Professor Jim Winship from the UW-Whitewater Department of Social Work. As a  young man fresh out of college, Dr. Winship dwelled in El Salvador as a Peace Corps volunteer.  He continues to return regularly, currently researching the youth of El Salvador, looking at the drawings they produce, the dreams they hold, and the effects of immigration. One recent product of  this research, funded in part by a Fulbright grant, is a documentary entitled “Difficult Dreams: Coming of Age in El Salvador.”
 
Professor Winship is also involved in a new web 2.0 format called digital storytelling. Here are some examples of that genre, including the second story called “From Arnoldo,” which is a reflection on salvadorans and his time in the Peace Corps.
 

 The legacies of the civil war in El Salvador from the late 1970s to the early 1990s are still visible to Professor Winship in the work that he is carrying out. Those times of trouble were also one of the few times when U.S. citizens paid attention to the country, one of the smallest in the Western Hemisphere. There are still resources available about the country and the period of war, such as this Web page by the Public Broadcasting System.