Minneapolis-St. Paul Syllabus

ASHE 2024 Syllabus: "I Am A Scholar" Annual Conference Taking Place on the Homelands of the Dakhóta Oyáte / Dakota People (colonially known as Minneapolis-St.Paul)

Created by the Local Community and Engagement Committee


The syllabus is organized into seven parts:

  1. Land Acknowledgement
  2. Reorienting to Access at ASHE
  3. Understanding Sites of Resilience and Resistance
  4. Black History & Futurities in Minnesota
  5. Immigrant & Diasporic Communities in Minnesota
  6. Higher Education in Minnesota
  7. Conclusion

We also encourage you to view the 2023 Syllabus developed by the 2023 Local and Community Engagement Committee.


Introduction

The Local and Community Engagement Committee (LCEC) was formalized in 2021 to provide ASHE conference attendees with meaningful learning and reflection opportunities that center space and place through engagement with higher education institutions and Black, Indigenous, and Other Peoples of Color (BIPOC) communities in the location of the annual conference.

During the 2023 ASHE Annual Conference in Minneapolis, the LCEC hosted many enriching experiences including: a presidential session with Twin Cities community leaders, an ASHE DASH podcast playlist on Minnesota waterways, a syllabus with resources on Minnesota history and present-day policies, and an exhibit and presentation on the impact of Dakota and Ojibwe treaties with the U.S. government on the Indigenous peoples of the region. The LCEC is honored to return to the contemporary and ancestral homelands of the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota and Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) peoples for the 2024 ASHE Annual Conference for further purposeful learning, relationship building, and community engagement. We are grateful to continue building upon the groundwork established by our predecessors and look forward to engaging attendees and community partners in creative and innovative ways, such as with this syllabus.

The syllabus provides a wide range of resources to read, listen, and view at your convenience. The conference theme of "I Am A Scholar" offers an additional lens to place and space that feels meaningful to the work of the Local and Community Engagement Committee. As we align the syllabus with the conference theme, our objective is for attendees to examine their identities as scholars and to think critically about how we can dismantle the hierarchies innately built into academia. Additionally, the syllabus hopes to expand the notions of what it means to be a scholar by considering where the work happens, who does the work, and how that work is achieved beyond social identities, institution types, geographies, methodologies, epistemologies, and more.

The first section of the syllabus is rooted in the resiliency of marginalized communities in the Twin Cities. Through the use of mapping software, undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota provide you with a wide lens of various significant sites of resistance of these communities. The second section provides context to Black history within the Twin Cities while giving light to current affairs stemming from Somali immigration to the Black Lives Matter movement. The third section covers how the Twin Cities is home to an extensive network of various diasporic and immigrant communities whose impact spans local leadership, business ownership, and beyond. The fourth section centers higher education institutions in Minnesota, specifically focusing on our community colleges and tribal affiliated colleges.

Minnesota is home to approximately 200 institutions of higher education serving a multitude of learners, including those with distinct and unique cultural considerations. The fabric of the Twin Cities (i.e., Minneapolis and St. Paul) community is woven with a rich history of Black and Indigenous liberation movements, progressive policy making, and radical coalition building. Minnesota is also well known for its leadership in legislative action to support LGBTQ+ communities with activism and organizing as key to those efforts. Additionally, it is a nexus point of diasporic communities including Karen (South Myanmar), Somali, Hmong, and numerous Latinx/e/a/o populations.

With respect and gratitude for the opportunity we’ve been charged with, we offer the following reflection questions as you navigate the syllabus:

  1. How do we recognize, integrate, and honor the knowledge of the communities where we live, work, and research?
  2. How can we challenge the marginalization, silencing, and/or erasure of the contributions of communities from research, teaching, and transformation in higher education?
  3. Where can we create space to center and cultivate the scholars outside of higher education institutions whose knowledge making can inform, challenge, and transform our own?

These questions will also shape the activities and experiences the LCEC will offer during the conference. Specifically, we encourage all attendees to participate in the following programs:

  • Presidential Session: Building New Foundations: Scholarship, Activism, and Praxis within the Arts: This presidential session invites local leaders within the Twin Cities art community to examine how art serves as a conduit for new research methodologies and community engagement. The discussion will be centered around organizing and activism praxis which considers local environmental, economic, and social contexts.
  • Witnessing: George Floyd Square: The Local and Community Engagement Committee is partnering with the Minnesota Agape Movement whose mission is to transform “street energy into community energy” as they work to “build a stronger, peaceful and safer community.” With an office located on Chicago Avenue just steps from 38th Street, Agape Movement has been an important organization involved in the work to advocate for and educate about the neighborhoods at the intersection known as George Floyd Square. ASHE members will have the opportunity to participate in small group guided visits led by Agape leaders. Space is limited; therefore, we ask you to complete a registration form to indicate your interest for attending one of these Witnessing visits. As part of the Witnessing experience, the Agape Movement has provided a letter with additional information about respectfully engaging with the community space for those unable to join the guided visitations.
  • "Save the Boards" Exhibit and Discussion with Founder Kenda Zellner-Smith: "Save the Boards" is a preservation project focused on collecting and preserving boards that were created after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. When emergency preservation efforts began, Kenda Zellner-Smith, founder of Save the Boards, and native of Minneapolis was a recent college graduate with limited experience in art preservation and community organizing. Zellner-Smith started the project by enlisting the help of her friend and roommate, Emma Shepherd. The pair, alongside other Twin Cities community members, have contributed to the preservation of more than 800 plywood boards and murals created following George Floyd’s murder.
  • Celebrate Minneapolis/St. Paul: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color-Owned Business Marketplace: The ASHE 2024 General Conference will feature a marketplace of Minneapolis St. Paul-based Black, Indigenous, and People of Color owned businesses. The Marketplace aims to celebrate the diversity of Minneapolis/St. Paul and its people, as well as enrich the conference experience and support local and community engagement.

We are proud to work alongside an amazing group of colleagues and community partners on this endeavor and look forward to fostering a transformative conference experience for all. A special thank you to the members of the 2024 ASHE Local & Community Engagement Committee for their contributions to this committee and co-creation of this syllabus:

  • Dr. Tania D. Mitchell, University of Maryland - College Park
  • Tabatha Cruz, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  • Brittany Anderson, American Indian Science and Engineering Society
  • Dr. Gresham Collom, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  • Dr. Orkideh Mohajeri, West Chester University of Pennsylvania 
  • Travis Olson, Michigan State University 
  • Jess Proskin, University of Minnesota
  • Dr. Fernie Rodriguez, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • Dr. Elaine Ward, Merrimack College