Community Research Projects (Race and Racism, ANTH 210), Fall 2025 American University

During Fall 2025, students in Dr. Mark Auslander’s Race and Racism course (American University) undertook small group community research projects, exploring the dynamics of racism, anti-racism, resilience, and resistance in our immediate environs. Many students were deeply concerned by current efforts to reshape historical memory in museums, including the Smithsonian museums. Others partnered with friends in the Yakama Nation to research and honor the life of a woman who had been listed as missing in Chicago since 1968. Other projects explored community struggles and cultural creativity in Ward 8/Anacostia in Southeast DC, and other neighborhoods of the city, as well as racial and environmental justice struggles elsewhere.

Specific project groups include:

I. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & and the Martha Bassett Case

—Disappeared but Not Forgotten The Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

—Honoring the Life of “Atwai” (Deceased) Bassett, of the Yakama Nation (Washington State) Community partner: Emily Washines (Yakama Nation):

—Artwork and Poetry Honoring “Atwai” Bassett

II. Crises of Public Memory: The Smithsonian and Beyond

—The Politics of Historical Memory in Smithsonian Institution Museums (8:10 am section)_

–—Unseen DC: The Contested Archive> Addressing Censorship, Culture, and the Future of the Smithsonian (11:20 am section)

–“From Censorship to Celebration: Re-situating Amy Sherald’s Work from the Smithsonian to the Baltimore Museum of Art

—Imagining a Museum of Black Women’s Experience, in conversation with The Go-Go Museum in Ward 8 (The Celebration of Black Women: Successes and Shortcomings)

III. Memory and Cultural Expression in Ward 8 and “Subaltern DC”

—Southeast Voices: History and Memory in Barry Farms, Ward 8 (Holding on to Home: The Untold Story of Barry Farm)

—Youth and Inclusion at the Capital Hill Boys Club Intergenerational Gallery Ward 8

—Poetry as Resistance: Returning Citizens and Creative Expression (Community Partners; Free Minds; More than our Crimes):

– Visualizing Poetry as Posters (Community Partners; Free Minds Collective:_ 11:20 a.m.

—The Art of Luis del Valle (Ward 8): Visualizing Immigration Detention in Washington DC

IV. Partnerships for Justice

—The Federalization of Law Enforcement in the District of Columbia (and the Post Racial Myth)

—Food insecurity, Housing, and Race. (Community partners: A Wider Circle and NW Community Food)

––Environmental Justice is Love. Camden County, Georgia and Environs (Community Partner: Newton Florist’s Club)

—History and Memory in Mt Zion/Female Union Band Society Cemetery: The Enigma of Mary Burrell (Georgetown, DC)

—The Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Pakistan and worldwide