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2024 DEI 2.0 Plan Report

Inclusive History Project (IHP)

Beginning in Fall 2023 and continuing for five years, the IHP is conducting rigorous research to honestly and critically re-examine and document the university’s past relating to diversity, equity and inclusion and to consider what reparative actions that history demands.

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Progress to Date

Since the release of A Design for the Inclusive History Project in July 2023, the IHP has focused our work in three key areas: expanding our team; engaging with campus communities through events, communications and outreach; and launching the rigorous and wide-ranging historical research at the heart of the IHP mission.

This year, the project successfully recruited three campus directors of research, hired two key staff members, and added a manager of engagement to guide and support our ambitious research, engagement, and reparative agendas. We also formed four central IHP advisory committees that include faculty, staff, students and community members. To broaden engagement and connect with stakeholders now and in the future, we hosted two events to provide updates on the project, held scores of small on-campus meetings and established new communication platforms that include http://inclusivehistory.umich.edu and an IHP newsletter.

Our main focus this year was research. Under the leadership of IHP research directors, and with the partnership of U-M’s campus archives, we:

  • Launched five large-scale research project sites focused on a range of critical topics, including the founding of various DEI-focused centers on the UM-Flint campus; the origins of the Dearborn campus; and the 1817 land transfer by the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewadmi nations that was central to the university’s origins in Detroit and subsequent relocation to Ann Arbor.
  • Rolled out the IHP Teaching Fund and the IHP Research & Engagement Fund. Through these funding programs, a total of 25 grants were awarded to students, staff and faculty, and their projects are expanding the scope and range of research, teaching, engagement, and creative practice related to the IHP on all three campuses.
  • Added 15 IHP-focused courses to the curriculum for the 2024-25 academic year, including courses supported by the IHP Teaching Fund and others taught by principal investigators of our research projects that will directly involve undergraduate and graduate students in our efforts. 

Responsible Unit: Inclusive History Project Team