LUCE “Learning with Charlottesville” Summer Institute
July 17, 2022
In June 2022, the Religion, Race & Democracy Lab, with the support of the Memory Project, hosted a group of 20 humanities scholars from across the U.S. for a week-long Summer Institute called, “Learning with Charlottesville: Narratives on Religion, Race & Democracy.” The cohort was selected through a competitive application process and represents 20 unique research foci on religion, race, and democracy in the U.S. The Institute was generously underwritten by The Henry Luce Foundation.
The Institute gave the visiting scholars a chance to learn from local scholars who have produced compelling public scholarship on Charlottesville’s distant and more recent history. The week of workshops featured a NYTimes opinion writer, an art historian and non-profit director, the manager of historical interpretation at Monticello, as well as nine UVA faculty who shared their wide-ranging expertise. They modeled how academic research can connect with a broader community and be a form of activism for racial justice, insight that Institute participants brought back to produce work in their own localities, some of which are listed below.
Meet the Scholars
Coming together in Charlottesville was an opportunity for the participants to get to know each other and to learn from local scholars who have produced compelling public scholarship on Charlottesville’s distant and more recent history. Throughout the week were a series of workshops supported by the Henry Luce Foundation featuring a total of fourteen expert guest speakers.
The week began with a walking tour of Charlottesville’s sites of memory, including historic Court Square, where Confederate monuments stood just a year ago.
UVA Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Memory Project Director, Jalane Schmidt (center) and Dr. Andrea Douglas, Director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center (right) critique the former monument to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
Guided tours of Thomas Jeffeson’s Monticello and the University of Virginia’s campus, gave an unflinching portrayal of what life was like for enslaved people.
Participants standing inside the entrance of Monticello.
UVA History Professor Kirt von Daacke discussed the history of slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s University.
The participants gained insights into Charlottesville’s African American history as depicted in the Holsinger Studio Collection, an archive containing nearly 500 portraits of African Americans in Charlottesville, from before the turn of the century through World War I.
UVA Associate Professor of History, John Mason is part of a team organizing a year-long exhibition of the Holsinger Studio’s portraits of Black life in Charlottesville.
Peppered amidst the local history lessons, were discussions about the nuts and bolts of audio production led by the Religion, Race & Democracy Lab’s editor and senior producer, who will continue to mentor the participants over the coming months to help them realize their projects. Participants also considered the audible landscape of downtown Charlottesville with Bonnie Gordon, UVA Associate Professor of Music, who tasked the scholars—audio recorders and headphones in-hand—with a listening activity to prime them for the work that lies ahead.
Dr. Larycia Hawkins
The week concluded with a screening of Same God, the 2018 feature documentary which follows the personal journey of Dr. Larycia Hawkins experiencing the polarization taking place within the evangelical community over issues of race, Islam, religious freedom, and politics. Hawkins, who is an Assistant Professor of Politics and Religious Studies at UVA was available for a post-screening conversation on the rooftop of the Vinegar Hill Theatre, where everyone enjoyed a relaxing evening of pizza and camaraderie.
Finished Projects
After the LUCE Learning With Charlottesville Institute, participants were charged with utilizing the audio narrative training they received to produce an audio narrative consisting of new, independent research about religion, race, and democracy in a location of their choosing. Five of these are publicly available on the UVA Religion, Race, and Democracy site, while one is available as a podcast through the podcast distribution organization Axis Mundi.
The City’s Salvation: Frank Rizzo and White Christian Nationalism in Philadelphia
Trads: Manufacturing Tradition in Catholic Churches in New Orleans
