Bryn Mawr faculty members Catherine Conybeare and Catharine Slusar are among the recipients of an American Council of Learned Societies Sustaining Public Engagement Grant.
With support from the grant, Conybeare, who is a professor of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies, and Slusar, who is an associate professor of theater, will develop a project entitled “Greek Drama/Black Lives: Intergenerational Collaboration in Philadelphia.” The pair are joined on the project by playwright James Ijames, actor Akeem Davis, E. M. Stanton School teacher Ilene Heller, Community College of Philadelphia Associate Professor Sarah Iepson, and Raelle Myrick-Hodges, artist-in-residence at the Seattle arts organization On the Boards.
From the ACLS Website:
This project is designed to restore and fortify relationships between Bryn Mawr College and two institutions in Philadelphia that have been severely affected by the pandemic and that serve a wide socio-economic demographic: the Community College of Philadelphia and E. M. Stanton School (K-8) in South Philadelphia. We are creating a year of vibrant outreach programming including classes, talks, workshops, and informal mentoring, and will build to a collaborative production of a play inspired by and adapted from Medea, a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. The play has been reconceived to place at its center questions of race and familial conflict and their impact on Medea's children: this is “Greek theater through Black eyes.”
Sustaining Public Engagement Grants support public humanities programs based at accredited United States colleges and universities that have experienced staffing reductions related to pandemic conditions, programming setbacks, and/or loss of institutional capacity for publicly engaged work. Awarded programs have demonstrated a deep commitment to the co-creation of knowledge with diverse communities outside of academia and promising approaches to addressing the most pressing issues our society faces today.
Only 24 grants have been awarded nationally. They represent outstanding public programs based at a variety of public and private institutions from 18 states and Puerto Rico. Each will receive up to $225,000 to be used over a 12-month period starting in Spring/Summer 2022.