Franklin & Marshall College is one of just 10 liberal arts colleges to be named a new recipient of a Humanities for All Times grant from the Mellon Foundation. With a $1.4 million grant from the foundation, a new F&M project — "Reckoning with Lancaster" —  is exploring and addressing the complex history of Lancaster and the College's role in that story.

“The work supported by this grant and undertaken by our amazing faculty, students, staff and community partners sheds light on vital aspects of F&M and Lancaster’s histories that often are not part of our curriculum or collective memories,” said Jon Stone, one of the grant’s principal investigators and associate dean of the faculty and professor of Russian and Russian studies.

“The learning and research and conversations fostered by this project can fundamentally reorient the ways we understand and appreciate the land and community we inhabit,” Stone added.

The Humanities for All Times initiative launched in 2021 with more than $16 million in initial funding from the Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder of the arts, humanities and culture. It is designed to support humanities-centered projects that improve the lives of students; connect liberal arts coursework to social justice and civic and community engagement projects within and beyond the classroom; and develop college curricula alongside community-based partners and organizations. 

In the first phase of Reckoning with Lancaster, faculty and students are working with Indigenous community partners to explore the relationship between European settlers and the Indigenous groups then living on the land that now comprises the College campus. The topics also include later history, such as documenting the lives of Carlisle Indian School children who spent time in Lancaster County homes between 1879 and 1918.

Reckoning with Lancaster will take place over three years, with each academic year aligning with a specific project and area of focus. Each of the themes will include:

• Undergraduate research seminars with community-based learning components;
• A faculty research colloquium specific to each theme;
• A non-academic, Lancaster-based leader to serve as a community fellow, co-leading the seminar and the accompanying faculty research colloquium
• Annual programming centered in humanistic experiential learning in partnership with F&M’s Faculty Center; and
• A summer curriculum institute on each theme, where faculty will develop new courses, modify existing courses and organize collaborative work and community events.

The grant's principal investigators include Jon Stone, associate dean of the faculty and professor of Russian and Russian studies; Peter Jaros, associate professor of English; Cristina Perez, assistant professor of American studies; and Mary Ann Levine, professor of anthropology. Levine and Eric Hirsch, associate professor of environmental studies, are serving as faculty leaders for Reckoning with Lancaster in the 2024-2025 academic year.

F&M is also working with community partners Jess McPherson, arts and culture strategist, and MaryAnn Robins, president of Circle Legacy Center. 

Levine says F&M students have an “unparalleled opportunity’’ to work with faculty, community partners and Indigenous participants. 

Levine and Hirsch are teaching courses in Indigenous studies. Other professors are revising courses to include novels by Indigenous writers in English classes, discussions of Indigenous affairs in government classes and other interdisciplinary opportunities.