The Black and Indigenous High School Summer Institute: Digging for Greater Social Justice

• In Event: Experiential Learning in Environmental History: Diversity from Margin to Center

Abstract

To begin, Professor Mack Scott (Narragansett) discusses their work leading the Black and Indigenous High School Summer Institute as part of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University. Scott illuminates how the two-week residential program used indigenous environmental histories and practices as tools of placemaking, teaching young activists principles in sustainability and food sovereignty as a foundation for social justice.

Bio: Dr. Mack Scott is a historian, educator, and member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe. His work focuses on the intersections of race and identity and employs agency as a lens through which to view and understand the voices, stories, and perspectives of traditionally marginalized peoples. He has published works illuminating the experiences of African American, Native American, and Latinx peoples. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University where he leads aspects of the Reimagining New England Histories Project. He is also working on a manuscript that traces the Narragansett nation from the pre-colonial to the modern era.

Author

• Mack Scott, Brown University