Developing a Diverse and Sustainable Place-Based Humanities Education through Regional Partnerships

FAIN: AA-289996-23

Ripon College (Ripon, WI 54971-1465)
Brian Scott Bockelman (Project Director: May 2022 to present)

Collaboration between two liberal arts colleges on a three-year project to develop a new sustainability studies curriculum. 

Building from a new collaboration between Ripon College and Marian University, this three-year project will bring together faculty members at the two institutions and other community partners to develop a more robust and sustainable approach to humanities education in the southern Fox Valley region of Wisconsin. Through visiting lectures, workshops, and regular faculty and course development opportunities, participants in our cross-campus Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) will reimagine the humanities for the twenty-first century, emphasizing sustainability, diversity, and place-based instruction as the three keys to preserving and expanding humanities offerings and enrollments at small liberal arts colleges. The result will be an approach to humanistic inquiry that is more responsive to local needs and resources, including a strengthened network of regional connections between humanities scholars, educators, and students at multiple institutions.