Anika Walke, the Georgie W. Lewis Career Development Professor, and Geoff Ward, professor of African and African American Studies and director of the WashU & Slavery Project, won a grant from the Rubin and Gloria Feldman Family Education Institute to support their upcoming Studiolab graduate course “Memory for the Future: Theories and Practices of Critical Curation.” Walke and Ward will co-teach the course in the fall. The Feldman Education Institute grant will help cover travel costs for students to travel to Tulsa and Kansas City, where they will visit sites that commemorate the Holocaust and anti-Black violence.
The Studiolab program was started by the Center for the Humanities in 2021 to create living-learning communities for graduate students in the humanities. Home-based in the Lewis Collaborative, Studiolab participants explore topics of contemporary relevance and develop practical skills relevant for academic and non-academic careers alongside the in-depth academic study of relevant histories and concepts. Walke and Ward are recipients of the second Studiolab grant competition at Washington University and will lead the year-long graduate course in 2022–23, which combines models of graduate education from the arts (studios) and the sciences (laboratories).
“Our studiolab course addresses the interlinked histories and legacies of the Holocaust, slavery, apartheid, and colonialism and creates opportunities for dialogue between communities impacted by and implicated in these forms of violence,” Walke said. “We strive to participate in developing reparative memorial practices in St. Louis by working with local partners such as the Feldman Kaplan Holocaust Museum or the Griot Museum of Black History. The Feldman grant allows us to visit and learn from existing projects in the region as we—students and faculty—learn about museum curation, visualization, or specific pedagogical strategies to address the legacies of systematic violence against various groups.”
More information about the upcoming course can be found on the "Memory for the Future" website.
