Angelo State University receives grant for history project

San Angelo—Angelo State University has been awarded a $69,999 grant from the Library of Congress (LOC) in Washington, D.C., to fund a new project to create historical information resources for local and regional K-12 schools and ASU academic programs.

Awarded through the LOC's Connecting Communities Digital Initiative (CCDI), the grant will fund ASU's project titled "All History is Local: Celebrating the People of West Texas." Only minority-serving, public colleges and universities are eligible for funding through the CCDI, and ASU's grant is one of only three awards slated by the LOC for this year.

The ASU project will bring together faculty and students in history, political science, and other arts and humanities disciplines to combine LOC digital collections with ASU collections to create teaching and learning tools, including an interactive map and informational stories. These digital resources will illuminate the lived experiences of communities of color, specifically weaving national and global themes and stories into the West Texas cultural narrative.

Additionally, the project will facilitate lesson planning for local and area K-12 teachers while helping them to weave these digital primary source materials into their curriculum. ASU students and faculty on the project will also host an outreach event and workshop to support the K-12 teachers, as well as the faculty who teach courses in ASU's academic minor in Ethnic Studies.

Dr. Aubrey Madler, executive director of the ASU Porter Henderson Library (PHL), will be the primary director of the project.

"We are excited to bring to fruition this project that was conceptualized during a brainstorming session with various ASU faculty," Madler said. "Funding from the LOC will be the catalyst that builds a new digital tool to bring stories, images and geospatial design to the LOC's primary source materials and those of our region's citizens that have been generously donated throughout the years to the Dr. Ralph R. Chase West Texas Collection of the PHL."

Shannon Sturm, associate director of the library and head of the West Texas Collection, and Dr. Matthew Gritter, chair of the Department of Political Science and Philosophy, will be co-directors of the project.

Angelo State was eligible to apply for the CCDI grant due to its status as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), as designated by the U.S. Department of Education since 2010. ASU also recently earned the prestigious national Seal of Excelencia, further enhancing its HSI status for federal grant applications.