Building Collaborative Scholar-Community Partnerships for Engaging with Heritage
Timeliness and Importance:
The humanities offer an enormous resource to the people of North Dakota, and to be as honest as
possible, to the world as a whole. The whole enterprise of humanities is a practical one: the humanities
are designed to provide and promote general knowledge about the human experience over time and space
as well as valuable intellectual and reasoning skills. By engaging in the humanities, people not only
develop a richer personal existence, but also acquire data and abilities necessary to be good citizens.
They better understand how people in general and from particular groups think, and why they think the
way they do. This knowledge base, backed with its reasoning skills, makes people more thoughtful,
careful thinkers to the benefit of themselves and those around them.
One roadblock in showing humanities’ value is a lack of collaborative projects that bring together
scholars and community members - both public and academic. Without dynamic interaction, the
potentialities of scholars learning from each other and the public, and the public learning from each other
and scholars remain hidden. Moreover, since the various stakeholders are insufficiently aware of each
other’s needs and abilities, no single stakeholder can be effective as he or she would have been with more
constructive interaction.
Connection to Mission of the North Dakota Humanities Council:
We propose a project that will bring together the various stakeholders from North Dakota to release the
potential for dynamic collaboration. We want to bring together humanities and humanistic social science
scholars to create collaborative enterprises with the public that benefit themselves and their respective
communities through the strength of symbiosis. Public communities have a need for interaction with
humanities scholar and humanities scholars, to fulfill their traditional roles, need to interact with
communities. In addition, humanities scholars must work to make their research applicable to and
valuable for the very constituencies they are intended to serve.
Benefits for the community and humanities and humanistic social science scholars:
We propose a project that will bring together the various stakeholders from North Dakota to release the
potential for dynamic collaboration. We want to bring together humanities and humanistic social science
scholars to create collaborative enterprises with the public that benefit themselves and their respective
communities through the strength of symbiosis. Public communities have a need for interaction with
humanities scholar and. humanities scholars, to fulfill their traditional roles,, need to interact with
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communities. In addition, humanities scholars must work to make their research applicable to and
valuable for the very constituencies they are intended to serve.
Steps to achieving goals:
1. The project’s working group will
a. Create a list of people to invite to the conference.
b. Ask those who are invited for additional names and specialties.
2. Promote the project’s Un-Conference
3. Identify research expertise and plans of scholars.
4. Identify the applied needs of the public.
5. Build collaborations that leverage scholarly expertise for public needs.
6. Package results of research and collaborations for the general public as well as the scholarly
community. Pay special attention to the fact that society privileges science and technology over
the humanities.
7. Promote the project’s work products.
8. Engage the community in distributing results of research and collaborations.
9. Assess collaborations and public engagement.
Note: Identifying research needs and interests, building collaborations, and engaging the community
would involve the following sponsoring organizations:
1. North Dakota Humanities Council (NDHC)
2. Northern Plains Ethics Institute (NPEI)
3. North Dakota State University
4. NDSU College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
5. Collaborative of Applied and Critical Heritage Engagement (CACHE)
6. Center for Heritage Renewal
7. Institute for Regional Studies Press
8. Germans from Russia Collection
9. North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies
10. Center for Rural Studies
11. Center for Social Research
12. Additional centers will be added as interest and appropriateness warrant.
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Some possible invitees:
Humanities scholars from all public and private universities and colleges in North Dakota, Turtle
Mountain Chippewa, Fargo-Moorhead Heritage Society, State Historical Society of North
Dakota, North Dakota Heritage Center, Fargo Theater, Plains Art Museum, Heritage Hjemkomst
Interpretive Center, Sons of Norway, Foundation for Agricultural and Rural Resources
Management, Fargo Local Foods, Cass Clay Food Systems Initiative, North Dakota Pride,
Minnesota Historical Society, Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society.
Means to achieving goals:
1. The Un-Conference on Heritage Engagement
a. Heritage engagement =df. A broad term used to cover applied areas of the humanities and
humanistic social sciences addressing features of community heritage. Public history,
ethics in everyday life, understanding the role of literature in developing local, national,
and global ideas, and digital humanities are examples, but the breadth and depth of
heritage practices and the humanities is not limited to these areas. Engagement between
community institutions and humanities and humanities oriented scholars includes, but is
not limited to, visitor evaluation for historical organizations and museums, development
of interactive exhibits, digital resources or websites, tourism development, and the
collection and protection of tangible and intangible cultural/heritage resources.
b. Un-Conference
i. This conference would stimulate an organic development of ideas through the
participants’ internally and externally generated interactions.
1. Pre-conference:
a. Promote Conference through snowball methods, personal
invitations, and publicity.
i. Be sure to promote sponsoring organizations, especially
the NDHC, NPEI, NDSU, and AHSS, at same time.
b. Create a long-term NPEI website designed to encourage
participation in the conference, create a marketplace of ideas and
information for participants and other interested parties,
distribute work product from the conference and overall project,
and promote the sponsoring organizations, especially the NDHC,
NPEI, NDSU, and AHSS.
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i. Highlight the Fargo Public History Project as a paradigm
of what the project wants to be and produce.
c. Through the website, seek applications from any parties
interested in being part of the conference. To encourage the best
group dynamic, we will have to limit the number of participants.
i. Initially to screen potential participants, we will list the
intermediate and primary goals of the conference in
addition to a less than exhaustive list of potential ideas
for conference themes. The idea is to not waste potential
participants’ time if they do not have work consistent
with the conference’s theme.
ii. Possible conference themes
A. Heritage Preservation, including values, history,
literature, and culture of North Dakota.
B. Heritage Tourism.
C. Public Humanities.
D. The Digital Humanities
E. Art and the Humanities.
F. Public Health and Well-Being.
G. Changing Demographics and Impact on Culture
and Ethnicity.
d. Through the website, gather information on potential participants
and their research. We would ask for a biography of their
research, what their needs are, what ideas they have about or
previous experience with collaborating with other scholars or the
public, and so on.
i. Screen for compatibility with the project’s intermediate
and primary goals.
e. This information would be collected, and then placed into a
database resource on the website that other Un-Conference
participants could read.
f.
One method for collecting and collating information is with a
webpage on the Northern Plains Ethics Institute’s website. There
were sections for bios and contact information, as well as some
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initial wiki threads on themes. Users could add themes as well.
This information and spirit of interaction will set the groundwork
for the day of the conference.
i. Conference applications will be available through this
resource.
g. Goals
i. Goal 1: One on one networking and collaboration.
A. The idea here is to give people some ideas of
who they want to meet and talk to at the
conference, as well as to begin generating ideas
about collaborations.
ii. Goal 2: Group building and collaboration
A. By identifying general themes, the conference
organizers can schedule sessions to bring
together individuals into possible research and
public speaking/sharing cooperatives.
2. Un-Conference
a. First day
i. In a gathering with all participants, the first session
would allow participants to talk about what they want to
talk about in the humanities and humanities related
research so that additional themes could be identified
and the themes coming into the Un-Conference can be
refined by participants.
A. Flash presentations would be held that allows
scholars to identify themselves and their
research.
B. The flash presentations would be easy to do by
having folks sign up for the discussion sections
by theme (generated by the pre-conference wiki
and the opening session discussion) right after
the opening session. There is a break, and the
moderators announce the discussion session
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topics and locations and everyone goes to the
discussion that interests them the most.
ii. Discussion sections held to discuss issues, ideas, and
initial themes generated by scholars – this would require
several moderators.
b. Second day – self-identified groups with interest in specific
themes will develop their ideas in more depth.
i. How they could collaborate
A. Identify projects.
B. Identify needs.
C. Identify assets.
D. Identify goals
E. Formulate plans on how to achieve goals.
3. Un-Conference themes
a. Although some of these will be created at the conference, we
anticipate that many scholars and community participants would
be interested in the role of the digital in the humanities and
heritage work, heritage institution evaluation, and
cultural/heritage resources management.
4. Details of Un-Conference
a. 30-50 participants from around North Dakota.
b. Held at the Radisson in downtown Fargo
i. We will need to set up guest wireless access for
participants. Probably will need a twitter feed and
wireless access.
c. Date: November 2-3, 2013.
d. Make sure that sponsoring organizations, especially the NDHC,
NPEI, NDSU, and AHSS, are on all conference materials,
including brochures and programs.
e. Make travel funds available for invitees to attend.
f.
Provide hotel rooms or offset hotel costs for invitees from out of
town.
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g. Assess the conference, with an assessment of engagement in the
community to follow.
2. Research and community engagement
a. Collaborate to produce scholarship.
b. Work with relevant communities to engage them in the research process.
c. “Give back” to the communities that support higher education through applying the
research results.
3. Broader community engagement
a. Implement ideas from the Un-Conference.
4. Have conversations with public about the research from 2: Research and community engagement.
a. Public presentations and other interactions
i. It is desirable to have at least 10 public events around the state showcasing the
work that is the result of this project.
b. Make sure that sponsoring organizations, especially the NDHC, NPEI, NDSU, and
AHSS, are on all conference materials, including brochures and programs.
5. Assessment
a. We would incorporate a “feedback loop” so that the assessment results inform the
research and engagement activities of those who attend the conference.
i. Monitor traffic on the NPEI project website.
ii. Monitor journal articles – and try to get access to them through the website.
iii. Monitor presentations – attempt to get recordings or other work product to put on
the website.
b. Collect immediate feedback from conference participants.
c. In one year’s time after the conference, we could send out surveys to ascertain the
following:
i.
Research productivity that can be linked to the conference.
ii. Community engagement.
Impact of training on teaching and community engagement.
Collaborative of Applied and Critical Heritage Engagement (CACHE)
NDSU serves the needs of a fast-growing state rooted in its heritage, where the past remains a core
resource for powering economic development. This brand of development stays true to North Dakotan
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values and visions in the face of a globalizing world. Heritage anchors ND as state business increasingly
taps into global financial flows. The benefits extend further, with the state well-poised to discover the
great development potential of its own heritage and expertise.
The mission of CACHE is to generate much-deserved focus on the treasures of history, tradition, and
place – local, state-wide, and tribal – as they intersect with regional, national, and international issues of
contemporary import. Our interdisciplinary approach allows us to study how heritage is mobilized across
a diverse range of social, political, technological, and economic interventions. This critical engagement
with the conditions and contexts of heritage provides the roadmap for more effective application of
heritage development in the present and for the future. Research will focus on the high impact fields of
sustainability and resilience, heritage development, and social justice.
Institute for Regional Studies
The NDSU Institute for Regional Studies & University Archives is the special collections and archives
department of the North Dakota State University Libraries. Its mission is to identify, collect, preserve and
makes accessible rare, valuable and unique historical materials in support of the research and teaching
missions of North Dakota State University. It also serves the citizens of North Dakota and scholars
throughout the world.
The goal of the Institute for Regional Studies & University Archives is to make the public aware of the
quality and depth of its collections and to encourage further research using these materials. Offering these
public web-based collections helps further the libraries’ and university’s missions of making unique
collections and scholarship available electronically for use by students, faculty and staff, educators, and
the wider community.
Northern Plains Ethics Institute
The Northern Plains Ethics Institute’s mission is to promote democratic participation in social and
ethical issues affecting the Red River Valley and beyond. The NPEI fulfills its charge by engaging
citizens in various discussions focusing on what kind of society they want to live in and how they go
about creating it.
The NPEI understands that the northern plains, as well as other global regions, face local and regional
problems. First, for one reason or another, many people have lost trust in one public or private institution
after another. Second, although many well-intentioned community members have tried diligently to solve
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our problems, they appear to be at an impasse. If these seemingly intractable issues are to be eliminated,
they will require the application of new approaches. For example, the most widely accepted decisionmaking process is five year planning, rather than looking farther into the future.
The NPEI, on the other hand, believes that the current paradigm is self-defeating. The only successful
decision procedure is that which plans for the next 10, 50, or even 100 years. Moreover, democracy needs
re-invigoration by involving the community in meaningful, fruitful activism. The NPEI will continue to
develop and utilize these new-old approaches to resolve the issues that affect our communities.
It is our hope that networking between the various social groups will attract more business to the area to
benefit those who live here now, as well as all of those who, in the future, will call the Fargo/Moorhead
area home. Furthermore, it is our expectation that we can continue to build upon previous successes to
serve as a prototype for universities and communities elsewhere in the nation. Given the ethical problems
that all areas of the nation face, the NPEI strives to have a great impact not only in Fargo/Moorhead area,
but communities well beyond the northern plains to enhance the quality of life for all.
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