Rackham is pleased to announce its 2025 Public Scholarship Grant awards for graduate students. These awards will enable students to apply their research to collaborative projects designed with community partner organizations to create public goods that serve communities locally and globally.

This year’s award recipients will complete their work in North America, South America, and India. Three of the six awarded projects focus on ecological issues, from land conservation to returning land control to indigenous populations. The remaining three projects work to advance health equity, incorporate youth voices into anti-gun violence advocacy, and promote indigenous learning principles. The successful student applicants demonstrated sustainable social, cultural, and environmental impact beyond the academy. Their projects stood out from a competitive application pool for their equitable partnerships, sustainability for local communities, and innovative and inclusive use of community knowledge in their doctoral research.

“In partnering with and centering the needs of local communities around the world, this year’s grantees and their projects demonstrate the kinds of lasting public good that can be achieved when we work together,” says Rackham Assistant Dean Emily Swafford. “University-community partnerships are a cornerstone of our mission, and these important student projects illustrate the power of life-changing education.”

By choosing to make public engagement a part of their graduate education, this year’s cohort will be able to make distinct contributions to the community needs they serve, the practice of publicly engaged scholarship, and their research fields.

The Rackham Program in Public Scholarship has supported public scholarship on campus since 1998, when it began as the former Arts of Citizenship Program. Its mission is to support collaborative scholarly and creative endeavors that engage communities and co-create public goods while enhancing students’ professional development around public engagement and community-engaged learning.

Students interested in applying for next year’s application cycle can learn more and view deadlines on Rackham’s Public Scholarship Grants page.

This year’s grant recipients and their projects are:

 

Anna Almore
Ph.D. Candidate, English and Education

“Sicangu Instructional Principles of Learning Project”

This project initiates a collaboration between Rosebud Indian Reservation’s Tribal Education Department, Tribal Education leaders across the Oceti Sakowin, and university partners across South Dakota. Together with Anna Almore, they will work to align and develop Sicangu principles of learning into South Dakota universities at the curricular and administrative levels. This initiative promotes culturally responsive learning through creative collaboration, implementation, documentation, and evaluation. Its goal is to empower Lakota students and educators and to benefit all learners across South Dakota.

 

Brianne Brenneman
Ph.D. Student, Urban and Regional Planning

“Advancing Health Equity: Enhancing Community Capacity for Data-Informed Decision-Making”

Partnering with the City of Toronto, Brianne Brenneman will develop activities and materials to increase the data literacy of city staff and community members related to an existing health equity initiative. The Toronto Strong Neighborhoods Strategy is an action plan to advance health equity throughout the city. To increase community involvement, the community partner is creating a new analytical tool called the Toronto Neighborhood Assessment Framework (TNAF), which invites community participation through using complex health equity data. Brenneman’s intervention will support the TNAF through co-designing programming with the aim of improving community data literacy to facilitate more participatory and evidence-based decision making.

 

Malu Castro
Ph.D. Candidate, School for Environment and Sustainability

“Sust’āinable Molokai Land Back Pricing Project”

“Land back” refers to a global restitution movement that advocates for returning land to indigenous populations. In his project, Malu Castro will work with a community partner, Sust’āinable Molokai, to assist the kānaka ʻōiwi (Native Hawaiian) residents of Moloka’i, Hawai’i, in their land back endeavor. Castro will research existing land restitution projects to inform residents of the different organizing strategies, acquisition prices, and other related mechanisms that have resulted in successful land back initiatives. Synthesizing and making this information publicly available will aid the kānaka ʻōiwi in their land back efforts and reassertion of their self-determination.

 

David Grace
Ph.D. Candidate, School for Environment and Sustainability

“Conserving Forests with Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Kodagu, India”

This project will focus on improving sustainable forest management in India’s Kodagu district. Local communities often possess traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) that aids in forest conservation and sustainable livelihood. Despite their benefit to forest management, these local communities were historically displaced from their forest lands. Working with the Coorg Organization for Rural Development, David Grace will record and disseminate information on how local communities engage in TEK, as well as spearhead a forest mapping project that can help these communities secure land tenure through legislation passed by the Indian government in 2006.

 

Esther Lee
Ph.D. Candidate, Health Behavior and Health Equity

“Art for Advocacy: Empowering Youth Voices Against Gun Violence”

This project establishes the Michigan Youth Art Council Against Gun Violence (YAC). In partnership with Art-ology, Esther Lee will facilitate the YAC as a youth-led initiative that empowers those from gun violence-affected communities to use art as a form of advocacy and healing. Through a series of biweekly workshops, facilitators and participants will engage with different topics related to art-based healing and community advocacy. Culminating in a collaborative art installation, the project endeavors to amplify community strength and awareness of gun violence prevention across Southeast Michigan.

 

Fabricio Martins Silva
Ph.D. Candidate, Urban and Regional Planning

Russell Lin
Master’s Student, Urban and Regional Planning

“Defending Land, Preserving Heritage: A Documentary on the Quilombo of Alcântara’s Fight for Justice and Cultural Survival”

This project will produce a documentary film and pedagogy manuals about the Quilombo of Alcântara’s historic lawsuit against the Brazilian government. This lawsuit alleges that the Brazilian government displaced and violated the Quilombos’ rights to collective title, free use and movement, and related protections during the installation of the Alcântara military rocket launch base. The documentary will build on an earlier student-involved project about the lawsuit as well as include updated information about the March 2025 court ruling and a series of newly recorded interviews with key figures involved in the lawsuit. The documentary and pedagogical materials will center the voices of the Quilombola and provide insights for discussing this historical case for teachers of school-aged children in the Quilombola regions.