How does one practice "inclusive history"? And what does this actually look like on the vast scale of a university? This new graduate-level History colloquium, "Doing Inclusive History," is designed to address these sorts of questions, while also providing you with a supportive and collaborative space for developing your own inclusive history projects in the future. Our goals here will be multiple. First, we will think critically about some of the recent models of "inclusive history" developed at other schools: from the pathbreaking "Slavery and Justice" project at Brown University to the institutional histories, self-critiques, and reparative work undertaken at Harvard, Georgetown, UVA, Wisconsin, the University of British Columbia, and many other universities. A second goal of our class will be to think about the shifting contours of the category itself. How, in other words, have the recent blueprints for doing "inclusive history" varied according to their institutional mandates and local settings: privates vs. publics, red states vs. blue states; schools built in the seventeenth-century context of Atlantic slavery vs. those which came much later and whose histories may therefore require somewhat different centers of gravity? Third, we will talk about methodology: i.e., what kinds of historical questions, conceptual frameworks, and institutional practices are necessary to do this kind of work? Are these methods simply identical to the skill sets typically gained in a top History PhD program (like ours)? Or does inclusive history require additional skills and competencies such as project-based collaboration, community outreach, public engagement, and facility in multiple platforms beyond the single-authored research paper? Finally, in the latter stages of this colloquium, we will build new forms of inclusive history (future courses, research projects, and public programs) for our own department. In this sense, we will be students and critics of inclusive history at the national level, as well as producers of new projects here at UM. Please note, too, that Professor Cook is one of the current members of President Santa Ono's UM "Inclusive History Framing Committee," which has been tasked with setting parameters, goals, and best practices for this university-wide project over the next ~5-10 years. In practice, then, students in this colloquium will have the opportunity to both learn from and contribute to one of our university's most important current DEI projects.

Course Requirements:

Regular attendance and participation; short response papers to multiple kinds of texts (published histories, policy briefs, digital exhibitions, etc.); a final project in which students design their own inclusive history projects (e.g., a course syllabus or public exhibition)

Intended Audience:

This colloquium is open to History PhD students at any stage in our program. No prior familiarity with "inclusive history" is necessary.

Class Format:

Much like our department's long-running "Dissertation Colloquium" (Hist 891), this new colloquium will meet every ~3-4 weeks throughout the academic year (i.e., from early September through late April). The specific timing of our meetings will be discussed among the participants and scheduled in such a way as to make this colloquium easily compatible with other weekly commitments such as required courses (615, 715, etc.), GSI assignments, prelim prep, and dissertation work. Our hope is that interested students at different stages of the PhD will find this colloquium useful and benefit in multiple ways.