Inclusive History Project-Dearborn

Welcome to the IHP DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) Resource Toolkit! This guide aims to help you begin your research and planning for IHP-related activities. Below, you'll find an expanding collection of resources and tools that delve into the IHP, the University of Michigan, as well as curated literature and resources focusing on DEI-related topics. These include introductory materials on DEI, literature about grappling with institutional history, and insights into DEI principles tailored to various disciplines.

As you plan your participation in the Inclusive History Project, it's important to note that this guide is not exhaustive. Rather, it serves as a starting point to jumpstart your efforts with the IHP and provide a collection of resources to inspire and inform. 

Successful projects align with the main mission and Four Research Frames of the IHP, which is to connect back to the history of the University of Michigan through a DEI-related lens. Feel free to reach out to our team members with any questions. You can contact Marlaine Magewick, Program Coordinator for Digital Humanities, at mmagewic@umich.edu and you can contact Prof. Camron Amin, Director of Research, at camamin@umich.edu.

Please note that this guide is a work in progress. We encourage you to check back regularly for additions to the guide. If you have any suggestions for additions to the guide, please share them with the IHP team by filling out the linked Google Form.

The Inclusive History Project (IHP) bases its research around four Research Frames, serving as "essential themes that provide a structure for the project's wide-ranging research" (IHP 2024). These include"

Origins & Trajectories

Origins & Trajectories houses projects that focus on the trajectory of the university over time, with a focus on examining received histories, recontextualizing existing narratives, and centering heretofore ignored stories.

People & Communities

People & Communities includes projects that focus on the lived experiences of individuals and communities within and around our campuses and on how institutional policies, practices, and norms have affected these experiences.

Symbols & Icons

Sites & Symbols organizes projects that explore the significance to institutional life of symbolic and material sites of memorialization and commemoration. Whether they take the form of named spaces, legendary figures, public art, iconic structures, or shared rituals, these tokens of collective identity serve not only to express but also to shape and sustain systems of value that can help to forge community even as they demarcate zones of exclusion from it.

Research & Teaching

Research & Teaching foregrounds the centrality of knowledge production to the university’s mission across time and place. It encourages reflection on how research and teaching have been defined, articulated, and practiced, how they have been resourced and evaluated, and what the implications of these contingent understandings of the university’s core activities have been for the education of our students and our contributions to society at large.