Phase 1: Settler Colonialism, Indigeneity and the Land Question
During the 2024-2025 academic year, the Reckoning with Lancaster project will explore higher education's relationship with settler colonialism and the significance of that relationship on F&M and Lancaster's past, present and future. This theme will:
- Ask questions about the relationship between (higher) education and settler colonialism as an integral part of F&M’s and Lancaster’s past, present, and future
- Build on the work of F&M’s Land Acknowledgement Committee
- Focus on bolstering contemporary Indigenous studies in the F&M curriculum
Year 1 Faculty Fellows
Prof. Eric Hirsch
Earth & Environment
Prof. Mary Ann Levine
Anthropology
Community Partners
Our community partners are Jess McPherson and MaryAnn Robins. Jess and MaryAnn have an extensive record of leadership and collaboration in our local Indigenous community and we are fortunate to have them as collaborators. Jess and MaryAnn will assist with the Summer Curriculum Institute for faculty, the Summer Research Scholar Cohort for students, and advise on campus-wide programming next year. In addition, they will partner with Mary Ann Levine on Indigenous Histories in Lancaster in Fall 2024 and Eric Hirsch on Indigenous Futures in Lancaster in Spring 2025.
Jess McPherson
Jess McPherson is a Master Artisan and arts & culture strategist with two decades of change making experience in the arts & culture impact sector. She earned a Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice and a BFA from Pennsylvania College of Art & Design. She serves on the Board of Directors at Circle Legacy Center and participates on the Lancaster Longhouse Educational Oversight Committee. She has most recently acted as Finance Director for Native American LifeLines, Inc in Baltimore. In addition, she participated in the “We Are of the Land: Applied De-colonial Practice in East Coast Tribal Communities” roundtable at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association conference. Notable partnerships also include the Eastern 2 Spirit and Indigiqueer Gathering, Maryland State Arts Council, Montgomery and Frederick Colleges, the Cultural Alliance of York County, and Creative York. She currently owns and operates Jess McPherson Arts & Consulting in York, PA, maintaining an active creative practice, while co-creating strategies for growth with individual artists and culturally centered impact initiatives in Native and non-Native communities throughout the MidAtlantic.
MaryAnn Robins
MaryAnn Robins is President of Circle Legacy Center, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and empowering Indigenous peoples here in Lancaster. She is Onondaga and grew up on Haudenosaunee tribal lands in upstate NY. She graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and worked as an interpreter in the Wampanoag history program at Plimoth Plantation while in Massachusetts. Here in Pennsylvania, she has served as a Plain community liaison for WellSpan Health in New Holland and Ephrata. She is a Carlisle Indian School descendant and former Board member of the Carlisle Indian School Project. She has worked tirelessly on educational programming and advocacy projects designed to elevate the voices of Indigenous peoples. MaryAnn is well known in Lancaster and throughout our region as an indefatigable advocate for the Indigenous community.