Research & Teaching

Research & Teaching foregrounds the centrality of knowledge production to the university’s mission. Projects in this frame examine how research, teaching, collecting, and archiving have been defined, articulated, and practiced, as well as how they have been resourced and evaluated. The Research & Teaching frame also considers the broad range of activities and sites at U-M that support and advance knowledge production, including the university’s libraries and museums.

This frame encourages deeper reflection on how changing understandings of the university’s core activities have affected the education of our students; impacted local, regional, national, and global communities; at times justified previously extractive relationships with communities around the world in the name of research; and shaped our contributions to society at large.

As part of the IHP’s reparative work, this frame seeks to build more reciprocal, co-creative relationships with community partners.

Project Sites

Affiliate Project

ReConnect/ReCollect: Reparative Connections to Philippine Collections at the University of Michigan

Fall 2021 - Present

Co-PIs: Deirdre de la Cruz and Ricky Punzalan

ReConnect/ReCollect is a multidisciplinary collaboration whose goal is to develop decolonial and reparative approaches to the vast collections of Philippine materials at the University of Michigan, much of which was acquired during the U.S. colonial period. Through research and community consultation, ReConnect/ReCollect seeks to understand the meaning and value of these collections from the perspectives of Filipino and Indigenous cultural heritage. Our initiatives and activities encourage greater access and engagement with U-M’s Philippine collections through education, research residencies, and the distribution of collection copies to source communities.

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Towards Community-Based Shared Stewardship

Summer 2024 - Present

Co-PIs: Alexis Antracoli and Jesse Johnston

The Bentley Historical Library and the School of Information are collaborating to develop a community-based stewardship program that aims to reverse the extractive relationship between university repositories and under-represented communities throughout Michigan. Instead of extracting resources and records from communities for study by scholars, we are working to build relationships with marginalized communities represented in the Bentley’s collections. This project works to 1) build relationships that support the Inclusive History Project’s goals of building more trusting relationships between the University and under-represented minority communities and 2) taking actions that contribute to a more inclusive future for the University of Michigan and the historical communities around the State of Michigan. Towards Community-Based Shared Stewardship looks across the archival record and methodological landscape to expand both archival practice and historical analysis in a way that makes it possible to construct a comprehensive history of the University of Michigan.

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