campus news
Campus News Ursuline chosen as affiliate for “Legacies of American Slavery” project Ursuline is one of a dozen colleges and universities from across the country named institutional affiliates in a multiyear project titled “Legacies of American Slavery: Reckoning with the Past.” Spearheaded by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), this initiative is designed to help CIC member institutions, their students, and their communities explore the continuing impact of slavery on American life and culture. The project will support campus-based research, teaching, and learning as well as community-based programs about the multiple legacies of slavery. "This project truly centers on the importance of humanities perspectives in addressing, examining, and working towards solutions for complex topics like the legacy of American slavery," said Katharine G. Trostel, PhD, assistant professor and chair of English and humanities. Dr. Trostel will serve as the faculty lead for the project. "Participating in this national network will allow us to interrogate as an institution how we teach our rooted history of racial segregation in a specifically Rust Belt context. We will work together with local and regional partners to amplify community dialogue, engage cultural organizations, and encourage our students to leverage their voices to activate social change. In doing so, we are able to highlight Cleveland and build upon previously established partnerships, such as our work with the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards—the only juried book prize in the nation focused on uplifting and honoring authors addressing issues of racism and diversity," Dr. Trostel said. In addition to the institutional affiliates, CIC named seven partner institutions, which will serve as the primary hubs of national networks. Each partner school will focus on a specific theme that has both local and national significance, organizing regional activities while contributing to a national conversation about race, equity, freedom, political power, and cultural resilience. Legacies of American Slavery is directed by Pulitzer Prize winning historian David W. Blight, who notes, “Because slavery is so central to the history of the United States—its origins, economic development, society, culture, politics, and law—it has left in its wake a wide array of legacies that seem ever-present yet ever-changing in our world.” (His essay on this topic, and further information on the project, are at www.cic.edu/LegaciesofSlavery.)
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voices | spring 2021
