ARCH 823, Section 3

“Under the Campus, the Land: Native and Settler Histories of the University of Michigan” will explore the conjoined but conflicting Native and settler colonial histories of the university by historicizing the land that the university has owned and occupied. The course will include four guest lectures from Eric Hemenway (Anishinaabe/Odawa), Director of Repatriation, Archives, and Records for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians of Waganakising, in order to center Anishinaabe perspectives in our pedagogy. Focusing on the university’s past and ongoing participation in the colonial settlement of Anishinaabewaki, the homelands of the Anishinaabe people, the course will introduce students to Native and settler colonial histories around the Great Lakes. Student coursework will be focused on a semester-long research project in which students will study sites owned by the University of Michigan in the past and present. Students will work on sites that are documented in collections of archival material at the Bentley Historical Library, offering students first-hand experience with research on primary sources. Framing this work in the context of reparative justice, we will also explore the possibilities and limits of engaged research.