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Ã山ǿ¼é Center for Communal Studies Annual Report April 2025

Apr 14, 2025 10:30 AM Central Time (US and Canada) 

Board Members Present
Dr. Gregory W. Brown (Retired Principal Christa McCauliffe Alternative Middle School & Independent Business Consultant); Dr. Andrew Buck, Professor of Sociology, Ã山ǿ¼é); Ms. Jennifer Greene (Archivist Librarian, Ã山ǿ¼é); Ms. Leslie Townshend (Director Community Engagement, Ã山ǿ¼é); Dr. Del Doughty (Dean, College of Liberal Arts); Ms. Marna Hostetler (Director Rice Library, Ã山ǿ¼é); Dr. Matthew Hanka (Professor of Political Science, Ã山ǿ¼é); Mr. G. Graham Perry Ill (Tennessee Historical Society Columbia State Community College); Dr. Kristalyn Shefveland (Assistant Dean, College of Liberal Arts, Associate Professor of History, Ã山ǿ¼é); Dr. Carol Medlicott Professor of Geography. Northern Kentucky University); Dr. Jason Hardgrave (Assistant Provost, Professor of History, Ã山ǿ¼é); Dr. Mike Strezewski (Associate Professor of Anthropology, Ã山ǿ¼é)

Absent Members
Dr. Donald Janzen (Consultant);; Dr. Donald Pitzer (Professor Emeritus of History, Director Emeritus Center for Communal Studies, Ã山ǿ¼é); Dr. Kelly Kaelin (Assistant Professor of History; Ã山ǿ¼é); Wendy Bredhold (Senior Manager Transmission Initiative National Audubon Society's Climate Team); Dr. Jason Hardgrave (Assistant Provost, Professor of History, Ã山ǿ¼é)

Special Guest
Ms. Diane Sanders, Assistant Director, Historic New Harmony Luncheon Guests
Prof. Michelangelo Sabatino, IIT College of Architecture, Chicago Prof. Ron Henderson, IIT College of Architecture, Chicago Fujimoto Kurato (Japan: Master Gardener)
Antonio Reboredo Raposo (PHD student, Polytechnic University of Catalonia) Mohammad Arabmazar (IIT MA+U, Master of Landscape Architecture)

Director
Dr. Silvia Rode (Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts; Professor of German, Ã山ǿ¼é) Administrative Assistant
Ms. Julie Cox

Center Location
Ã山ǿ¼é, University Archives and Special Collections (David L. Rice Library, Communal Studies Reading Room 3022)

Meeting Location
Ã山ǿ¼é Campus UC 2217/18

I.    Acknowledgements

•        Dr. Matthew Hanka was appointed by Mayor Stephanie Terry to serve a two-year term on the Evansville Vanderburgh County Human Relations Commission. And the Evansville City Council elected Dr. Hanka to another four-year term on the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Advisory Committee.
•    Dr. Del Doughty has been named to the board of directors for Indiana Humanities, a statewide nonprofit organization.
•    Dr. Silvia Rode was promoted to Associate Dean of the college of Liberal Arts and was appointed to serve on the board of Urbans Seeds, Evansville.

II.    Board Members (term expiration 2025)

Dr. Gregory W. Brown (agreed to continue), Mr. G. Graham Perry Ill (agreed to continue), Dr. Joshua Lockyer (agreed to continue)

Ill.    New Board Members Approvals

Dr. Greg Blair is originally from Red Deer, Canada, He received his Ph.D. in Aesthetics & Art Theory from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts (IDSVA), Portland, ME Dr. Blair is an artist, writer, educator, and activist who resides in Evansville, Indiana with his wife and two children. Blair is an Assistant Professor of Art and Design at the Ã山ǿ¼é where he teaches digital design, contemporary art history, and gender studies courses. Blair's scholarly research and artwork intertwine various forms of writing, publishing, zines, sculpture, photography, sound, and installation. Blair is interested in scholarship and practices that encourages collaboration, interdisciplinary scholarship, and networking. Blair's last book project, The Politics of Spatial Transgressions in the Arts, was published by Palgrave Macmillan. His writings have also been featured in Arts Magazine, The Journal of Art for Life, Echo: A Music­ Centered Journal, Art Style Magazine, Visual Inquiry, and Kapsula Magazine. His newest book, What Punk Taught Me, will be published by Vernon Press in early 2025. Dr. Blair is interested in joining the CCS board so he can offer his background and experiences in art, design, and collaboration to further assist the mission of the CCS to promote interdisciplinary scholarship and public interest in communal groups.
Greg is the publisher of a new photography book on New Harmony.

Dr. Tristra Newyear, earned her Ph.D. in Central Eurasian Studies from Indiana University. She conducted extensive field research in Siberian and Mongolian communities. Besides teaching and publishing in her field (a book chapter on Siberian history, published by Routledge 2026), Newyear has 20 years' experience in music/PR industries. She is a creative artist (writer, audio creator, instigator) devoted to the history of New Harmony and community creativity. Currently, she is the Chief Strategy Officer at Rock Paper Scissors, a Bloomington-based PR/marketing agency with an international reputation for excellence in music and entertainment technology PR. In addition, she has decades of experience in public relations and the music industry, as well as several semester's experience teaching classes solo at the college level and a PhD from IU in cultural history/area studies. Newyear is also an artist who published several novels, most recently Starfa/1, dubbed "visionary" by NUVO Indianapolis, based on New Harmony's history. She also wrote and produced a limited-run podcast on early 19th-century firebrand Frances Wright and have been interviewed on NPR stations (WNIN, WVXU Cincinnati). And she regularly co­ creates arts events in her hometown of Bloomington as part of an arts collective, MDWST Fable. Tristra has published novels based on the Harmonist and a Podcast on Fanny Wright and intentional communities.

Dr. Claudia Roesch is an assistant professor in modern history at Konstanz University, Germany where she teaches 19th century history and gender studies. She has earned her PhD in modern and contemporary history at Munster University in 2014. Since then, she has held researcher positions at the German Historical Institute, Washington, and the Konstanz University History of Knowledge Research group. Her research interests are the history of intentional communities in the Americas, the history of gender and the family, migration history, history of science and technology. She is the recipient of the CCS 2024 Research Travel Grant and was also awarded the Fulbright American Studies Award for her book project Utopian Engineering: Solving the 19th Century Slavery, Labor, and the Women's Questions with Science, which investigates the use of science and technology in intentional settlements in the Americas. As a Fulbright fellow, Dr. Roesch visited the Ã山ǿ¼é Center For Communal Studies and the New Harmony Working Men's Institute in the fall of 2024. Her most important academic publications include: " Owen and the Engineers: Cross-Fertilization between Engineering and Early Socialism in the Owenite Tradition", in: Global Intellectual History (2023): 1-16; "Talking about the Weather: Producing Climate Knowledge as Colonial Practice in Intentional Communities in the Americas, 1820s-1840s", in: History of Intellectual Culture 3 (2024): 137-157, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111291383-007 Claudia has conducted research in New Harmony and a new book that includes findings on New Harmony is forthcoming.
Drs. Blair, Newyear and Roesch received unanimous approval

IV.    New Harmony Update

Ms. Diane Sanders, Assistant Director of Historic New Harmony

V.    Communal Studies Minor

CCS ???: Innovative Communities: Past, Present and Future Semesters offered: Spring
Course description:
This course explores how intentional communities can innovate and change the lives of their members and communities at large. The course includes examples of past, present and future models that offer solutions to social problems and new avenues for sustainable living.,. The course draws on insights from USl's relationship with New Harmony, the Rice Library archives and the Minka Lab on campus. (Committee Members: Buck, Brown, Hanka, Rode, Shefveland)

VI.    CCS Prizes and Grant

As of April 14th, we have received one CCS travel research grant submission and one graduate prize submission. Solicitations for submissions were posted in the Communities Magazine, ICSA newsletter, and to approx. 500 academic email addresses. Board members discussed new advertising strategies, such as advertisement at CSA conference package and Humanities Net.

 
Undergrad./Graduate Review Committee

Carol Medlicott

Matthew Hanka

Del Doughty
 
Travel Research Grant Review Committee

Graham Perry

Jennifer Greene

Greg Brown

VII.    Lecture

The Lives of a (Modern) Building:
The Edith Farnsworth House in Chicago: Architecture, Landscape, Preservation and Community
Join us as Chicago-based architectural historian Professor Michelangelo Sabatino (IIT College of Architecture) and landscape architect Ron Henderson (IIT College of Architecture) discuss the new book about the famous Edith Farnsworth House in relationship to design, landscape architecture, and preservation.

Sabatino's new book reveals the three different "lives" ofthe famous modern house in Chicago beginning with its commissioning by client/patron Dr. Edith Farnsworth with famed German architect Mies van der Rohe followed by two additional "lives" centered around the period of ownership by Lord Peter and Hayat Palumbo, concluding with its current stewardship by the National Trust for Historic Preservation/Landmarks Illinois. Ron Henderson was a contributing author to the book and will discuss the "Lives of a Tree."
The new book will be on sale and authors are available for signing.

Special guests: Fujimoto Kurato (Japan: Master Gardener)
Antonio Reboredo Raposo (PHO student, Polytechnic University of Catalonia) Mohammad Arabmazar (IIT MA+U, Master of Landscape Architecture)

•    Tentative CCS lecture fall 2025 G. Graham Perry Ill (Tennessee Historical Society Columbia State Community College)

VIII.    Academics, Outreach and Engagement

•    College of Liberal Arts Colloquium

Harmony and Dissonance: The 11th Annual Interdisciplinary Colloquium
The Ã山ǿ¼é College of Liberal Arts Tuesday April sth, 2025 Carter Hall

•    UNIV101: Screaming Eagles Experience

Greene and Rode met with artist Sarah G Sharp, who is planning her solo exhibit in New Harmony, January 2026. Her work in utopian communities is aligned with the research material held in the collections at USl's Center for Communal Studies.

•    Rode is participating in a workshop, entitled "In and Out of the Canon of Intellectual History" at Helsinki Centre for Intellectual History (Myriam-Isabelle Ducrocq, Nanterre Universite, France - organizer)

IX.    Collection Development

•    Common Place, Cambridge, MA. Working with community members to transfer community archival records, minutes, events, some limited financial, and photographs.
•    John Martin Smith
o Possible donation of Indiana Shaker community materials, 1818 Deed signed by President Monroe granted lands that the West Union/Busro was built and other related materials. The materials are coming from the son of John Martin Smith, Shaker historian.
•    Don Janzen

Articles on cooperative living, interviews, community logos and event posters, and quotes from publications on various topics of communal living.
Reference

12 general reference requests
 
9- Public

3-Faculty

Contacted by 88 Keys Arts and Entertainment Management regarding information on Jonestown Survivors and possible use of materials from collection. Sent updated finding aid for Peoples Temple and Laura Johnston-Kohl, links to images in Ã山ǿ¼é gallery and the Jonestown Institute.

X.    Budget
Expenditures    $7,145.00  $7,145.00    $2,620.71    $500.00 $4,024.29  36.68%    56.32%
Not included are Communal Magazine advertisement, awards, board luncheon.

ADDENDUM BOARD OF ADVISORS
Scholarly Publications, Presentations, Teaching, and Awards 2024-2025

University of Florida, February 2025