Baltimore Field School 2.0 creates a framework for UMBC graduate students, staff, and faculty to collaborate with community partners in building ethical and sustainable research and teaching projects focused on public humanities. The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) has awarded a public engagement grant of over $150,000 to support Baltimore Field School (BFS) 2.0: Undoing & Doing Anew in Public Humanities. The award will further develop a planning intensive that moves away from extractive research models and helps build ongoing Baltimore-based humanities projects. The grant will fund collaborative projects developed with community fellows and will focus on food and land justice, racial equity, and journalism/public information. As part of UMBC's Public Humanities program, the innovative field school and community fellows project is led by Sarah Fouts (principal investigator), Nicole King (co-investigator), Jasmine Braswell (project coordinator), and Tahira Mahdi (evaluator). The award will broaden the reach of the Baltimore Field School (BFS), launched through a $125,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2020.
Today we proudly announce our new cohort of eight Community Fellows:
Betty Bland-Thomas of South Baltimore Partnership. Bland-Thomas will work with Courtney Hobson.
Yesenia Mejia of Creative Alliance. Yesenia will work with Tania Lizarazo.
Curtis Eaddy II of Presidential Brands. Curtis will work with Bill Shewbridge.
Eddie Conway and Cameron Granadino of Real News Network. Eddie and Cameron will work with Beth Saunders.
Tisha Guthrie of Poppleton Now and Baltimore's Renters United. Tisha will work with Nicole King.
Lisa Snowden of Baltimore Beat. Lisa will work with Jasmine Braswell.
Aishah Alfadhalah of Mera Kitchen Collective. Aishah will work with Sarah Fouts.
Eric Jackson of the Black Yield Institute. Brother Eric will work with Charlotte Keniston.
Eleven UMBC graduate students, staff, and junior faculty in the social sciences and humanities will receive a $3,000 stipend for their participation in the Baltimore Field School 2.0 in Summer 2023. Applications for this workshop will open in December 2022.
Full descriptions of the Community Fellows, their projects, and our BFS 2.0 team are included on the BFS website: http://baltimorefieldschool.org/ Inquiries and questions can be directed to Sarah Fouts: sfouts@umbc.edu.
Full press release is attached.