UM Institute for Social Change 2023

This week (May 10) I had the opportunity to serve on a panel for the University of Michigan Institute for Social Change alongside Dr. Lilia Cortina (University of Michigan) and Dr, Rahul Mitra (Wayne State University). I am honored to have been invited to join alongside these outstanding senior scholars and learned so much from each of them in our time together.

Thank you to Dr. Joseph Cialdella for your work with the Rackham Program in Public Scholarship and for the Institution for Social Change in particular.

The Institute for Social Change (ISC) is a cohort-based spring program that allows students to explore the conceptual and practical dimensions of public scholarship—the diverse ways we can create and circulate knowledge for and with publics and communities. The program introduces graduate students to an array of publicly engaged scholarship, pedagogy, and practices focused on social change and university-community partnerships.

As a doctoral student, I participated in the Rackham Program in Public Scholarship and highly recommend the programs to those who are at the University of Michigan. This program has helped me to think about my pedagogy, my commitments to social justice, and my actions towards public scholarship and also also funded my work with the Teen STEAM Cafe Project, a public scholarship partnership with the Ypsilanti District Library.


Rackham Public Scholarship Grant

I am proud to announce a partnership between the University of Michigan and the Ypsilanti District Library Downtown Branch! Ashley Jackson and I have had the opportunity to work with Teen Services Librarian Kelly Scott at the Ypsilanti District Library for the past few years. Together, we applied for the Rackham Public Scholarship Grant to fund a teen-driven program called STEAM Cafe. Read more about the program below!

Educational studies doctoral students Ashley Jackson and Laura-Ann Jacobs received a Rackham Public Scholarship Grant for a project with the Ypsilanti District Library. In partnership with Youth and Teen Librarian Kelly Scott and the library’s Teen Advisory Group, they will create a Teen STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) Cafe program.

Guest speakers will discuss their work, explain how they came to be in that career, and host activities related to their career. In collaboration with the library’s Teen Advisory Group, Teen STEAM will also offer access to opportunities to learn about and create media projects through experimentation and professional guidance.

Rackham Public Scholarship

Congratulations to our cohort of grant recipients!

Kathryn Berringer
Ph.D. Candidate, Anthropology and Social Work
“An Organizational and Community History of LGBTQ Organizing in Detroit”

Peter DeJonge
Ph.D. Candidate, Epidemiology
“Enhancing Data Collection and Utilization Within a Local Child Care Illness Surveillance Network”

Maggie Hanna
Ph.D. Student, Educational Studies
“Creando Juntos: Community Language and Literacy Support (CLLS)”

Megh Marathe
Ph.D. Candidate, Information
“Voices of Epilepsy”

Kayla Fike and Ozge Savas
Ph.D. Students, Psychology and Women’s Studies
“Community Language Advocacy Program” (CLAP)

Click here to learn more about this year’s grant recipients.
Click here to learn more about our grant.