Herscher wins U-M Press Book Award for Under the Campus, the Land
Republished from The University Record article “Thirty-two receive faculty awards at 2026 celebration.” (November 12, 2026; written and provided by the Office of University Development and compiled by Genevieve Monsma)
Taubman College’s Andrew Herscher has been honored by the University of Michigan for his 2025 book exploring connections between the Anishinaabe Tribe and the university. Thirty-two U-M faculty members received university awards for notable contributions to teaching, mentoring, service, and scholarship at the U-M Faculty Awards Celebration on November 11.
The University Press Book Award is presented to members of the university teaching and research staff, including emeritus members, whose books have added the greatest distinction to the Press List. Selections are made from books published within a span of two calendar years.
Herscher is a professor of architecture at Taubman College; professor of the history of art at the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; and a faculty associate of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Program.
His archival research has uncovered the largely forgotten history of Anishinaabe contributions to U-M’s founding. His book, Under the Campus, the Land: Anishinaabe Futuring, Colonial Non-Memory, and the Origin of the University of Michigan (University of Michigan Press, 2025), documents how Anishinaabe people granted land to settlers to establish an educational institution intended to serve Native and non-Native children. It also examines how settlers violated that agreement, using the land grant to finance colonial expansion and contributing to Native displacement. The research aligns historical records with intergenerational Anishinaabe memory.
Herscher earned a B.A. in architecture from Yale University and a Master of Architecture and Ph.D. in architectural history from Harvard University. His scholarship broadly explores communities’ struggles for rights and justice. Under the Campus, the Land is his seventh book and second to receive U-M’s Press Book Award.
