Congratulations to Ruth N. Halls Associate Professor of History and CRRES Associate Director Dr. Michelle R. Moyd on receiving a grant from the Indiana Studies team at Platform: An Arts & Humanities Research Laboratory (and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation). This award focuses on the study of Indiana, aiming for a “more accurate and dynamic representation of the state’s past, present, and future.” This year, the theme is racial justice through the lens of history, film, foodway access, immigration, and others—and every project has a community component or public presentation. Dr. Moyd’s project titled “Fighting for Citizenship” uncovers the hidden histories of Black soldiers in and from Indiana to achieve the following:

1- Highlight artifacts, documents, photographs, and other materials to offer glimpses of Black military service in Indiana, a state that is coded white in the US imaginary, in order to disrupt and recast such representations.

2- Illuminate how Black soldiers from Indiana participated in US imperial wars, including those waged against Native and Indigenous peoples and overseas during the Spanish-American War.

3- Understand how military service created or foreclosed new opportunities for Black soldiers from Indiana.

Dr. Moyd also writes extensively on the social and cultural history of African soldiers, in her books: Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa and Africa, Africans, and the First World War (in progress).