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Aaron chats with Evan R. Jones, a Ph.D. candidate in communications at UNC whose research focuses on abandoned and reclaimed spaces. He recently discovered a fascinating one right here in Chapel Hill: a handful of old buildings behind the Friday Center known as CHYDARU, short for “Chapel Hill Youth Development and Research Unit.”
CHYDARU was opened in the mid-1960s as an experimental youth prison. That lasted barely a year; then the buildings were used to store radioactive waste before being abandoned and largely forgotten. Jones discusses the history of CHYDARU and his own research, which explores how we can understand and make sense of abandoned places and spaces – and how we can understand them after they get reclaimed.
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How can we read Evan’s piece you all mentioned?