Story Lab News

Several Schoolcraft College students recently did what those on Gilligan’s Island couldn’t do: return to civilization after a three-hour boat tour. Instead of being stranded on a tropical island, those students made it back to land after spending part of the day on Sept. 11 on the Alliance, a 105-foot schooner with three masts that

Launched in response to the growing crisis of narrative infrastructure, the Detroit River Story Lab is a collaborative, public-facing initiative that leverages the sociocultural, economic, and ecological centrality of the Detroit River corridor to reimagine it as an urban case study in narrative placemaking and civic renewal. 

Marquise Griffin, a U-M doctoral student pursuing a joint degree in English and education, led an onboard learning station about Detroit as a river city. He explained to the students that Black and Indigenous people were fundamental to harnessing the river’s resources to build the city. But, over time, their communities were pushed away from

When Michigan Chief Justice Augustus Woodward drew up the University of Michigan’s founding charter in 1817, he saw the new educational program as part of Detroit’s urban renaissance. In 1805, a devastating fire had reduced the timbered city to ashes. Faced with the task of rebuilding, Woodward drew up an ambitious city plan that hinged

As a grey sea of heavy clouds opened up to release a downpour of warm rain, cyclists and pedestrians fled the Detroit Riverwalk. Not far away aboard the Inland Seas, it was business as usual as we drifted through the rain past the Renaissance Center near downtown Detroit, plankton net swirling through the water as teenagers

The currents in the Detroit River danced calmly Friday afternoon as a group of teens went out for a boat ride — on a vessel they built with their own hands. Over the course of the week, the University of Michigan’s Detroit River Story Lab, in partnership with the Green Door Initiative, hosted the third

The waters were clear and blue the morning of the schooner outing, but students were still apprehensive. Some had never been on a boat before, and the sailing ship was an intimidating start to getting one’s sea legs. The schooner outings are part of the Detroit River Skiff and Schooner Program, which was created by the

As part of a DRSL-sponsored internship with the Inland Seas Education Association, U-M graduate student Marquise Griffin has been developing a ship-board learning activity focused on local communities’ historical ties with the Detroit River.

What does literary theory have to do with the Detroit River? A lot, it turns out! The Detroit River Story Lab is a great example of what practical humanities looks like – in practice. It is a collectively led interdisciplinary project at the University of Michigan. It is also, importantly, a partnership between several UM schools and

There’s no better place to learn about the impact the Detroit River has had on our region than from a skiff you’ve built with your own hands or from aboard a large schooner, sails aloft in American and Canadian winds. A pilot project developed last summer by the Detroit River Story Lab at the University

(Taubman College, 1/19/22) During the fall 2021 semester, Taubman College students in the Detroit River StoryLab Physical Planning and Design Workshop experimented with storytelling and representation strategies in collaboration with the Detroit Historical Society. Led by María Arquero de Alarcón, associate professor of architecture and urban and regional planning, students explored Wahnabezee — or Belle Isle,

(University Record, 1/10/22) Helping to hoist the sail on the tall ship Inland Seas was a unique experience for Leya Phinisee, a sixth-grader from Flint. She and her dad, Jason, joined one of the three educational sail outings aboard the 77-foot schooner on the Detroit River that the University of Michigan sponsors for local nonprofit

(Michigan News, 3/8/21) The University of Michigan ramped up its collaborations on a multitude of projects in the city of Detroit during the pandemic, including outreach to residents on issues ranging from unemployment to the COVID-19 vaccine. Initiatives such as Poverty Solutions, which created an Economic Mobility Partnership with the city of Detroit, and a

(Graham Sustainability Institute, 2/18/21) The Detroit River Story Lab was one of seven University of Michigan projects to receive funding  from the Graham Sustainability Institute’s Carbon Neutrality Acceleration Program. Each project has dramatic potential to help reduce net carbon emissions. “I congratulate the U-M researchers of the CNAP teams whose exciting projects apply multidisciplinary problem-solving

Darin Stockdill’s work with Detroit youth at a community center and as a middle and high school social studies and English teacher will certainly inform his current project. As part of the larger Detroit River Story Lab project led by University of Michigan English professor David Porter, Stockdill will support history scholars and educators connected to

(All Things Considered, 11/23/20) After years of work, the University of Michigan is launching the Detroit River Story Lab. It’s a multi-faceted partnership between the university, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and several local environmental organizations. The project was created by David Porter, an English professor at the university, who says that the goal is to put regional perspectives and storytelling at the heart

(Michigan News, 10/22/20) Two years in the making, the Detroit River Story Lab lifts off at the University of Michigan this semester with grant-funded partnerships and several multidisciplinary courses devoted to the international waterway’s long and deep store of sustaining narratives, past and present. As envisioned by David Porter, professor of English and comparative literature,