|
|
Humanities Project Makes State's Top 30
For more information on this story contact:
Aug. 27, 2004--Humanities professor Elizabeth Flynn was more than a little surprised to learn that a project she put away 23 years ago was receiving statewide honors.
"It just kind of blew me over," she said. "I couldn't believe it."
The Michigan Humanities Council recently announced that "Discovering Copper Country Women's Heritage" was among its 30 Outstanding Humanities Projects, which were selected from among the 1,500 proposals funded by the council over its 30-year history.
In 1981, the project's coordinating committee developed a series of workshops, film presentations and discussion programs to involve the public in the heritage of Copper Country women. The project featured several notable local women and explored the impact of women on labor history in general. More than 1,500 individuals, including members of the Objibwa community, attended project sessions.
At the time, the series received a Certificate of Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History. But it might not have been the wisest course for a young faculty member.
"It was a stupid thing for me to do," says Flynn. "I was untenured, and I was only in my second year. I came up for my third-year review having spent my entire second year on this project.
"The chair said, 'Beth, where are your publications?' I said 'Don't worry.'" By the fall of her fourth year, she had her publications, and she got her tenure.
Though she didn't announce it at the time, the project was also Flynn's way of pursuing her interest in feminist studies. "It felt kind of necessary to do this," she said. "We needed to kind of reach out and meet other people."
The project was coordinated by Michigan Tech faculty, staff and students as well as members of the community and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. The coordinating committee included many familiar names: co-directors Kathleen Brahney, a former humanities faculty member, and Flynn; as well as Valerie Pegg, now director of Great Events at the Rozsa; Gloria Melton, now dean of students; Theresa Spence, who recently retired as library director; the late historian John Flynn; the late Barbara Filer, former career center director; Carol Brown, an alumna in STC; June Hawthorne, now retired from the library staff; Jan Dalquist, retired library director; Joan Bemis of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community; local musician Isabelle Hagen; Allison Slavick, a biological sciences graduate student; and others.
"It was a pretty substantial grant then, about $13,000," Flynn remembers. "We had a lot to live up to once they had given it."
Most who worked on the project were new to the area, so it was chance to get to know one another and the community.
"We received very good coverage from the Daily Mining Gazette, though there was a letter from a disgruntled local woman who thought it was presumptuous of us, who after all had not grown up here, to undertake such a project," Flynn said. "For the most part, though, we were greeted with enthusiasm and cooperation, and we were amazed at how many people turned out for the events."
Flynn says that some of the materials from the project, now stored in the MTU Archives, may be brought out to recognize Women's History Month in March 2005. Anyone interested in helping out can contact her at eflynn@mtu.edu
Finlandia University also had one of its projects from the 1980s, the Finnish-American Oral History Theatre Troupe, named among the Michigan Humanities Council's 30 Outstanding Humanities Projects. Many of the 700 Finnish-American oral histories storied in the Suomi College Archives were incorporated into a theater production, "Kuparisaari Kultamaa," staged across the Upper Peninsula.
The creators of the 30 Outstanding Humanities Projects will be honored at the Michigan Humanities Council's 30th Anniversary Celebration on Sept. 30. Tickets to the event are available at michiganhumanities.org/anniversary or by calling 517-372-7770. |
|
