Kassabaum and Steiner Receive Excellence Through Diversity Grants
Megan Kassabaum, Associate Professor of Anthropology, and Emily Steiner, Rose Family Endowed Term Professor of English, have received grants from the Excellence Through Diversity Fund. Awarded annually by the Office of the Provost, the fund provides resources for innovative interdisciplinary projects on topics related to diversity and inclusion.
Kassabaum’s West Philadelphia Community Archaeology Project focuses on community archaeology in Philadelphia’s Mantua, West Powelton, Saunders Park, Belmont, and Mill Creek neighborhoods, in collaboration with People’s Emergency Center, a homeless services provider. Despite gentrification and other changes, material traces of the rich history of these areas persist. The power of community archaeology lies in the ability to use these material traces as entry points into discussions about gentrification, systemic racism, and socioeconomic change and to recover a heritage that may seem lost. The West Philadelphia Community Archaeology Project is also supported by a Klein Grant, a component of the School’s commitment to contributing to the achievement of social justice through research and teaching, and through community engagement rooted in the arts and sciences. Douglas K. Smit, a senior fellow in the Department of Anthropology, is project co-director. Kassabaum is also Weingarten Assistant Curator of the American Section of the Penn Museum.
Steiner’s project, Networks in the Humanities (NET-Hum), is a year-long mentoring program for early-career faculty in the humanities departments of Penn Arts & Sciences. Mentoring and responsibilities for early career faculty can vary widely depending on field and department. Networks in the Humanities aims to level the playing field by breaking down areas of academic life and showing the participants how to succeed in each area. It helps faculty across diverse disciplines and backgrounds develop skills to navigate the tenure-track process at Penn, get promoted to tenure, and become institutional leaders. Heather Williams, Geraldine R. Segal Professor in American Social Thought, and Kevin M.F. Platt, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Humanities, are leading the group with Steiner.
