Reimagining Racial Justice

Yashua Klos, Diagram of How She Hold It All Together, 2021. Paper construction of woodblock prints and graphite on archival Japanese rice paper. Courtesy Yashua Klos.

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The World-Building Potential of Black Studies

“Educators can no longer afford to be shy about publicizing the practical skills their humanities students develop...” writes Program Director Philip Brian Harper for “The Hechinger Report.”

Media HechingerReport

Opinion: Studying Humanities can Prepare the Next Generation of Social Justice Leaders

30 Years and Counting: How MMUF has Paved the Road for a Truly Diverse Academy

New in 2022, “Humanities for All Times” meets growing undergraduate interest in social justice by supporting projects that teach humanities skills and methods necessary to transformational change.

New Initiative Supports Liberal Arts Colleges Providing Social Justice-Oriented Offerings

Lift up those things that we tend to bury, that we tend not to want to address. How do we examine our past...and how do we become better?

Agnes Scott College is undertaking historical preservation, curricular development, and community building within the college and in partnership with the City of Decatur.

A large group of people stand in front of a mural where the words "justice" and "one vote" are visible. 

Preserving, Teaching, and Sharing a Fuller History of a College and Its Community

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We’re in a moment where the task of building life-affirming institutions is more urgent than ever.

Dr. Ayanna Thompson, founder of RaceB4Race, is a Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University and the director of its Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 

A Black woman stands in a doorway that leads to an office. A sign on the door reads, "Research In Progress." 

RaceB4Race: How it Started and How it’s Growing

Lae'l Hughes-Watkins is the founder of Project STAND and the associate director for engagement, inclusion, and reparative archiving at the University of Maryland.

A Black librarian wearing large hoop earrings sits facing the camera.

Archiving Student Activism Means More than You Think

Author of “Postcolonial Love Poem” and “When My Brother Was an Aztec,” Natalie Diaz is Mellon’s 2022-2023 Fellow in Residence.

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A day in the life of a Mellon fellow in residence, as shared by Natalie Diaz, a Pulitzer Prize–winning writer and educator. 

The Words and Wisdom of Natalie Diaz

Writer, educator, and 2022-2023 Mellon Fellow in Residence Natalie Diaz, who directs the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands at Arizona State University. Photo: Lelanie Foster for Mellon Foundation

An Indigenous person wearing a sport track suit sits legs-crossed on a chair in front of a backdrop.

Evolving Higher Education

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Artists as Catalysts

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Beyond Incarceration

A side profile of a Black poet who is wearing glasses and a hat with a feather hat pin.

Civic Engagement

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Expanding Public Knowledge

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Monuments and Memory

A large statue of a confederate general is covered in markings and graffiti. 

Multivocality

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Power of the Word

Five colorful neon signs hang on the wall with messages that include, "Freedom cannot wait," "Brown owned," and "America is for Dreamers."

Public Places‚ Public Stories

A group of Indigenous Maskoke people stand and sit in the wooden frame of a structure in a woods

Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora

In a vertical image, a black leather vest is adorned with colorful pins across the front of it. Embroidery on the vest reads: "Felícitas "La Prieta" Méndez" 

University Everywhere

Two scholars dressed in all black face the camera.

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History

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