This year, the EMU Graduate Program in Historic Preservation is asking alumni, students, and friends to donate to the ROBERT & CAROL MULL FUND FOR INCREASING DIVERSITY IN HISTORIC PRESERVATION.
In summer 2022, The Mulls established funding to support outstanding EMU HP graduate students who have financial challenges, or who work in or with diverse communities, or are from underrepresented groups including LGBTQ. This first year of the funding enabled two superior students, Akaiia Ridley from Albion, and Summer Wright from Grand Rapids, to attend our program. A bit about them:
+ At Albion College, Akaiia focused on collecting oral histories relating to the effect of the Great Migration on Albion, interviewing elderly African-Americans with fascinating stories to tell. She has also delved into the Black experience, past and present, at Albion (her work is on the Albion College website). As she says, she wants “to learn about preserving history the way [a community] wants it to be preserved.”
+ Summer Wright was a director of a pediatric health care clinic in Grand Rapids for fifteen years. She recently decided to leave that position to focus on her studies, which will take her to a new career. She is interested in universal design and disability accommodation in programs and in historic buildings. Additionally, Summer is exploring how we might more effectively share LGBTQ stories in our communities, museums, and historic sites, reinforcing that these stories have always existed.
We believe that the next generation of preservationists and museum professionals must consider multiple perspectives in their work with communities' tangible and intangible heritage. This consideration begins in our classroom conversations, with students from a variety of experiences, viewpoints, and backgrounds.
We hope you will support increasing diversity in the program, and in the field, and donate to the MULL FUND. Every dollar helps!
