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2023 DEI 2.0 Plan Report

Inclusive History Project (IHP)

The Inclusive History Project (IHP) is a multi-faceted, multi-year presidential initiative to study and document a comprehensive history of the U-M by honestly and critically re-examining the university’s past as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion.

A vintage photo of Black students in formal wear posing together on a porch

IHP will engage the entire university and neighboring communities to better understand the full history of U-M and to consider what reparative actions that history demands in the present and future. This project emerged in response to various factors, including:

  • Wide-ranging efforts to study and reckon with the university’s history currently underway on our campuses
  • The rich histories of campus activism and institutional support for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at U-M
  • Historical name reviews that have taken place on the Ann Arbor campus over the past several years
  • A broad movement among other colleges and universities to reckon with their histories

Beginning in Fall 2023 and continuing for five years, IHP will conduct rigorous scholarship to explore the university’s history through the themes of origins and trajectories, people and communities, sites and symbols, and research and teaching. In order to create meaningful engagement and cultural change within the university, research findings will be shared regularly through publications, programming, curricular materials, and other means. These initiatives will generate far-reaching outcomes ranging from new scholarship, research and courses, and may lead to reimagined institutional policies and programs that seek to remedy the effects of histories documented by the project.

Responsible Unit: Inclusive History Project Team