In Fall 2021, the Anti-Racist Digital Research (ARDR) Initiative pilot launched. The ARDR Initiative is a mini-grant program that supports early-stage digital scholarship projects that advance anti-racism and social justice in the humanities, arts, and humanistic social sciences. The pilot was met with an overwhelming response — from a competitive pool of over 30 applications, six project teams were awarded grants. This program was made possible through a partnership with the U-M Library, the College of Literature, Sciences, and Arts Technology Services, and the National Center for Institutional Diversity’s Anti-Racism Collaborative.

DAAS Professor Stephen Ward will be working on the Digital Archive of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center. This project will work toward creating a digital archive for the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership, a nonprofit organization located in the home of these longtime Detroit activists. James and Grace Lee Boggs were active participants in the major racial and social justice movements of the 20th century, and they stand as central figures in Detroit’s rich history of anti-racist struggles. They have influenced generations of grassroots organizers, and they continue to inspire contemporary activists and movements. Founded in 1995, the Boggs Center carries forward their ideas about social change and their legacy of anti-racist activism, supporting or helping to launch a range of local protest movements, community-building activities, and grassroots organizations in Detroit. The project will organize and digitize an array of materials that have emerged from these activities, as well as material documenting the activism and thought of James and Grace Lee Boggs.

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