Collaboratory Awards Six New Proposal Development Grants

The Humanities Collaboratory is pleased to announce our 2021 Proposal Development Grant (PDG) teams. This year we had an exceptionally large number of teams applying and have awarded an unprecedented six grants.

Proposal Development Grants provide significant funding during May and June of each year for awarded teams to develop a Project Grant proposal. We look forward to sharing more detail about the compelling collaborations of the incoming 2021 PDG teams:

Centering the Northern Frontier: Integrating Histories and Archaeologies of the Mongol Empire will integrate historical and archaeological scholarship through the concept of knowledge democracy as the team pursues a common interest in the Mongol Empire (c. 1162-1367), an era that is vast in geographical range and historical scope. Team members include PI Alicia Ventresca Miller (Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology / Assistant Curator, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology); Christian de Pee (Associate Professor, Department of History); Bryan K. Miller (Lecturer, History of Art); Sangseraima Ujeed (Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures); Pär Cassel (Associate Professor, Department of History); and Miranda Brown (Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Professor of Chinese Studies, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures).

Detroit River Story Lab is a transdisciplinary research and outreach initiative that leverages the sociocultural, historical, and ecological centrality of the Detroit River as a site for transformative public-engaged scholarship and teaching. Team members include PI David Porter (Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Department of English); María Arquero de Alarcón (Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning, Taubman College); Angela Dillard (Richard A. Meisler Collegiate Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, DAAS, and in the Residential College); Melissa Duhaime (Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, EEB); and Rebecca Hardin (Associate Professor of Natural Resources, School for Environment and Sustainability).
Environmental Activism and Minoritized Languages on Social Media investigates how environmental activism and marginalized languages intersect in three distinct geographic sites – Cabo Verde islands, Nigeria, and Japan. Team members include PI Marlyse Baptista (Professor, Linguistics Department and Department of Afroamerican and African Studies); Omolade Adunbi  (Associate Professor, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies); Allison Alexy (Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, and Department of Women’s and Gender Studies); Kenneth Mills (J. Frederick Hoffman Professor of History, Department of History); and Jennifer Nason (Linguistics and Economics Librarian; Collection Coordinator, Social Sciences and Undergraduate Library).
Making and Remaking the Northern Racial Landscape: the History of Segregation and Inequality in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor is a community-engaged collaborative research project on the history of racial segregation and African American community building in Washtenaw County, Michigan during the 20th century. Team members include PI Matthew Countryman (Associate Professor, Afroamerican and African Studies and History); Jennifer Jones (Assistant Professor, History, and Women’s and Gender Studies); Michael Steinberg (Professor of Practice, Law School); Stephen Ward (Associate Professor, Afroamerican and African Studies and the Residential College); and Claire Zimmerman (Associate Professor, History of Art / Architecture Program).

Re-Connect/Re-Collect: Reparative Connections and Collections at the University of Michigan will develop alternative ways to represent and provide access to Philippine cultural heritage materials held by the Bentley Historical Library, the Special Collections Research Center in the University Library, and the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. Team members include PI Ricky Punzalan (Associate Professor, School of Information); Nancy Bartlett (Associate Director, Bentley Historical Library); Martha O’Hara Conway (Director, University of Michigan Library Special Collections Research Center); Kerstin Barndt (Associate Professor, German Languages and Literature and Director, Museum Studies Program); Deirdre de la Cruz (Associate Professor, Asian Languages and Cultures and Department of History; and Director, Anthropology and History Program).

Singing Justice: Recovering the African American Voice in Song confronts the crisis of racial injustice and its erasure of Black creativity by engaging Black song across the full breadth of U.S. history from the colonial era to the present, recovering voices that have been silenced while amplifying those of Black performers, poets, and composers in search of a deeper understanding of the Black experience. Team members include PI Mark Clague (Associate Professor, Musicology, American Culture, DAAS); Naomi André (Professor, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Residential College Arts, and Women’s and Gender Studies); Stephen Berrey (Associate Professor, Department of American Culture, Department of History); Caroline Helton (Associate Professor, Department of Musical Theatre); Louise Toppin (Professor, Department of Voice); and Thomas Hampson (Distinguished Visiting Artist, Department of Voice).