Grant Awarded: November 2005

Type of Grant: We the People Grant

Sponsor: Michigan State University Press

Contact: Julie Loehr, loehr@msu.edu

Website: msupress.msu.edu

Award: $20,000

In 2006, the Michigan State University Press and the Michigan Museums Association will partner to foster community dialogues about the state’s ethnic diversity and cultural history. During the year, pairs of authors, each representing a different ethnic experience as represented in the “Discovering the Peoples of Michigan” book series, will make presentations of their research at 10 museums throughout the state. The project was funded through a $20,000 We the People grant from the Michigan Humanities Council.

“Discovering the Peoples of Michigan” highlights the inclusive nature of Michigan’s past and present, while at the same time emphasizing diversity. A tentative schedule of participating museums, and the published volumes they plan to use for their public events, includes:

Bay County Historical Museum in Bay City
* Germans in Michigan by Jeremy W. Kilar
* Poles in Michigan by Dennis Badaczewski

Besser Museum of Northeast Michigan in Alpena
* Poles in Michigan by Dennis Badaczewski
* Germans in Michigan by Jeremy W. Kilar

Clarke Library at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant
* Amish in Michigan by Gertrude Enders Huntington
* Germans in Michigan by Jeremy W. Kilar

Colonial Michilimackinac in Mackinaw City
* French Canadians in Michigan by John P. DuLong
* Scots in Michigan by Alan T. Forrester

Ella Sharp Museum in Jackson
* Jews in Michigan by Judith Levin Cantor
* African Americans in Michigan by Lewis Walker & Benjamin C. Wilson

Kalamazoo Valley Museum in Kalamazoo
* Latvians in Michigan by Silvija Meija
* African Americans in Michigan by Lewis Walker & Benjamin C. Wilson

Iron Industry Museum in Negaunee
* Italians in Michigan by Russell M. Magnaghi
* Poles in Michigan by Dennis Badaczewski

Public Museum of Grand Rapids
* Mexicans and Mexican Americans in Michigan by Rudolph Valier Alvardo & Sonya Yvette Alvarado
* Dutch in Michigan by Larry ten Harmsel

Port Huron Museum
* Jews in Michigan by Judith Levin Cantor
* African Americans in Michigan by Lewis Walker & Benjamin C. Wilson

Rochester Hills Museum
* Arab Americans in Michigan by Rosina J. Hassoun

“Discovering the Peoples of Michigan” will provide an opportunity to attract new audiences to humanities programs, engage people in discussions relevant to their own history and to the future, make new scholarship available to the general population, and explore Michigan’s cultural and ethnic diversity.