{"id":17532,"date":"2022-01-26T19:36:54","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T19:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=17532"},"modified":"2026-03-03T17:34:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:34:33","slug":"project-to-develop-humanities-curriculum-around-mississippi-river-receives-grant-from-mellon-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2022\/01\/project-to-develop-humanities-curriculum-around-mississippi-river-receives-grant-from-mellon-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"Project to develop humanities curriculum around Mississippi River receives $1.49 million grant from Mellon Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

St Paul, Minn.<\/b> \u2013 The Mississippi River is at once a symbol of American might, an object of blight, and a constant, flowing reminder of our nation\u2019s complicated past. This richness is what makes the iconic river such a perfect laboratory to develop an innovative humanities curriculum that engages with some of the most pressing issues of our time. That\u2019s the basis for a new Macalester-led initiative, titled \u201cMississippi River Watershed: An Immersive Humanities Curriculum,\u201d which has just been awarded $1.497 million in funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation\u2019s largest funder of arts, culture and humanities. The multi-layered, highly collaborative project<\/span> is one of 12 proposals from liberal arts colleges to receive substantial grants from the foundation\u2019s Humanities for All Times Initiative.  <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to their press release, the Mellon Foundation\u2019s Humanities for All Times Initiative <\/span>was created to support newly developed curriculum that both instruct students in methods of humanities practice and demonstrate those methods\u2019 relevance to broader social justice pursuits. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Professor John Kim, chair of Macalester\u2019s Media and Cultural Studies department and one of the project\u2019s leaders, the initiative offers an opportunity to facilitate deep connections between the diverse people, cultures and issues that span the length of the watershed. The focus of the work will be around the confluence of race, environment, and resource extraction, all issues that resonate well beyond the river\u2019s edge.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/span>I think Macalester is perfectly suited to be a place where we can try to respond to the looming social, racial, and environmental catastrophes that are increasingly coming to define the country as a whole and not just Minnesota,\u201d said Professor Kim. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In doing this work, Macalester is meeting its responsibility, added Media and Cultural Studies Professor Tia-Simone Gardner, one of the project leads.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a responsibility to the communities in which we take up space and disperse our students,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a small liberal arts college, we have to step up to the challenge and opportunity this grant provides.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the project\u2019s objectives is to develop a new curriculum that demonstrates to students the transformative nature of a humanities education. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/b>I think what we are hoping to do with this proposal and through this new curriculum is to really look at the history that\u2019s led to the world we\u2019re in right now,\u201d said American Studies Professor Kirisitina Sailiata, another project lead. \u201cAnd then imagine what Otherwise Worlds<\/span><\/a> could look like, which I think is what humanities and arts allow us to do.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new curriculum will be transdisciplinary in approach, and will incorporate experiential learning and real-world problem solving. For this work, community partners are essential, which is why building new relationships and strengthening existing ones are another major goal.    <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the questions we want to explore is: How do we bring education outside the confines of the college and put it into practice, into play, in collaboration with activists and organizations that are doing important work and fighting these problems at the intersection of race, environment and resource extraction?\u201d said Professor Kim. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To create the optimal conditions for collaboration along a river that spans 2,300 miles, the project will involve planning and coordination between five so-called \u201criver hubs.\u201d These spaces build upon anthropologist Dr. Renya Ramirez\u2019s (Ho-Chunk) and Paiute activist Laverne Roberts\u2019s concept of Native hubs<\/span><\/a>. These hubs will bring people together around questions of power, relationships to place, and the ethics of stewardship all along the river. The five hubs and their host institutions are:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n