The Mellon Foundation, the nation's largest funder of the arts, culture and humanities, announced this week that Seattle University has received grant funding for its social justice-related curriculum work. The $495,000 grant will aid in SU's path to achieving its strategic directions.

The central aim of the project, titled Race, Racialization, and Resistance in the United States, is to enable faculty in the humanities and humanistic social sciences to design courses that explore the complex processes of the construction of race in the U.S. in global contexts. It also strives to investigate the broad range of collective and individual forms of resistance to racism and address the tension between the social-structural constitution of race and subjective experiences of it.

Professor and Chair of History Hazel Hahn, PhD, and project director, says, “Intersectionality, global contexts for analyzing race and racialization in the U.S., ecology and methods of resistance are some of the key themes the grant will enable faculty to work on.”

In addition to Hahn, the leaders of this project include Professor of English and Special Assistant to the Provost for Curriculum Charles Tung, PhD, and Professor of English and Director of University Honors María Bullón-Fernández, PhD, who is also Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities.

“We’re excited to build on the amazing work of our faculty members,” explains Tung. “We are incorporating this work as widely and systematically as possible into our programs, to support our efforts in reimagining and revising our curriculum.”

“This particular grant and the mission and vision of the Mellon Foundation are in complete alignment with the College of Arts and Sciences’ strategic plan,” says Professor Bullón-Fernández. “We look forward to the many ways the grant will support the work of our faculty, transform our students’ education and strengthen the humanities in our college and university.”