梅隆基金会资助火博体育的非洲研究和人文学科

A $1.1.85亿美元的资助. 梅隆基金会将支持火博体育 黑人研究项目 和 种族正义教学挑战赛, advancing Africana studies 和社会公正 through innovative course creation 和 teaching, 本科研究和跨学科合作. 

The three-year grant comes as part of the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities for All Times Initiative, which supports curricular projects in the liberal arts that help students to see 和 experience the applicability of humanities in their real-world social 正义 目标. 

Funding for Skidmore’s project, Africana Studies 和 the Humanities: Transnational Explorations in Social Justice, will support the development of new courses for the 学院的 黑人研究项目 through the launch of “learning communities” that will help faculty to refine their own underst和ing of new teaching methods, schools of thought, 和 areas of study that will diversify curriculum 和 illuminate social 正义 issues within 和 across 学科. 

这一努力将直接加强学院的 种族正义教学挑战赛 (RJTC), launched in spring 2021 to increase Skidmore’s curricular focus on racial 正义. 由 美国研究系 和 黑人研究项目 和 supported by the Office of the President 和 the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, the RJTC encouraged faculty to develop content on racial 正义 和/or Black studies for their spring 2021 和 fall 2021 courses, in consultation with Associate Professor of American Studies 贝克Krefting 和 Professor 和 Director of the 黑人研究项目 温斯顿Grady-Willis, co-principal investigators of the 梅隆格兰特. 

In spring 2021, the 种族正义教学挑战赛 sparked participation from 63 faculty members who offered 96 courses, constituting approximately 12% of courses 完成了那个学期. 2021年秋季，81名教职员工参加，提供110门课程 课程，约占课程总数的14%. 学院的大部分学术 departments engaged with the challenge, from the humanities to the sciences.

There is a deep-seated desire among many Skidmore faculty 和 staff to be proactively anti-racist 和 avoid complicity, whether in the classroom or in their day-to-day 生活. With faculty 和 staff eager to support racial 正义 initiatives, we can 专注于创造途径去做我们知道必须做的事情." 

贝克Krefting

美国研究副教授

In addition to Grady-Willis 和 Krefting, the seven-person Africana Studies 和 the Humanities project team includes Wendy Anthony, head of Special Collections in Scribner Library; Susan Blake, visiting assistant professor of philosophy; Lisa Grady-Willis, associate director 和 visiting assistant professor of intergroup relations; Lucia Hulsether, assistant professor of religious studies; 和 Jamie Parra, assistant professor 的英语. 

The learning communities, three of which were launched this January, are a combined effort of the project team 和 other Skidmore faculty 和 staff across a variety of 学科. 参加活动的还有唐朝教学博物馆、斯克里布纳图书馆和 中心, a 5,000-square-foot facility that promotes principles of equity, inclusion, 和 为学生、教职员和教员提供多学科规划的公正. 所有的 these resources 和 spaces will support research, discussion, 和 creation of new 课程内容. 

项目团队的工作由 种族正义倡议 由Skidmore总裁Marc C. 康纳在7月上任的第一天说道 1, 2020, as well as the collaborative anti-racist statement “Healing Through Action” that was signed by faculty 和 staff across the New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium 高校.  

In launching Skidmore’s 种族正义倡议, President Conner, whose own academic research is grounded in literary studies 和 Africana studies, outlined specific action steps to deepen Skidmore’s institutional commitment to racial 正义 和 to catalyze substantive community conversations about the individual 和 collective work that 有待完成的工作. 

One incredibly important concern that drove our entire team was the need to do whatever we could intellectually to honor the significance of this moment — not only the 生活 lost to racial violence, but the 生活 transformed through study 和 struggle — substantively. The 梅隆格兰特 gives us the opportunity to do just that, to collaboratively help 推动机构向前发展.” 

温斯顿Grady-Willis

黑人研究项目的教授和主任

In addition to supporting course development, the grant will seed undergraduate research that centers on racial 正义 和 engages with colonization/decolonization 和 power 系统和结构. 它还将资助创建两个为期两年的博士后 在黑人研究中有明确的人文基础的职位. 这个项目 在1月中旬开始在全国范围内招聘这些职位. 

“An education in the liberal arts — emphasizing critical thinking, creativity, 和 创造——现在比以往任何时候都更重要。. “有意地致力于工作。 broadening institutional support for already existing social 正义 curricula 和 seeding new initiatives in this vein throughout the curriculum 和 in faculty 和 student research will profoundly alter the culture 和 climate 在火博体育, creating 具有持久影响的积极变化.”