Fort Lewis College has received a $1.35 million Humanities for All Times grant from the Mellon Foundation to establish the Laboratory for the Humanistic Study of a More-than-Human World.
This ambitious interdisciplinary initiative explores relationships between people, culture, and the natural world through Indigenous knowledge systems with a focus on understanding human experience and relations with the non-human.
The multi-year project will support high impact classroom projects, undergraduate research, public programming, and collaborative learning spaces connecting students and faculty across disciplines ranging from Native American and Indigenous studies to environmental studies, anthropology, art, and the social sciences.
The initiative aligns with Fort Lewis College’s role as Colorado’s only Native American-serving public liberal arts college and the institution’s broader commitments to reconciliation, community engagement, and inclusive education.
“Humanistic methods are not just about studying human history and culture in isolation, they also help us better understand our relationships with non-human others and the places we inhabit and steward,” said Cory Pillen, a principal investigator of the grant. We hope to create transformative educational experiences that prepare students to think critically, collaboratively, and ethically about the present, past, and future.”
The project will support the development of new Liberal Arts Core learning modules, co-taught upper-division courses, and interdisciplinary research opportunities that encourage students to apply humanistic methods in unexpected contexts.
A central component of the initiative will be the creation of a laboratory space housed within FLC’s Center of Southwest Studies. The laboratory will function as a collaborative space where students can participate in workshops, receive mentorship, pursue research opportunities, and engage with visiting scholars and community knowledge holders. The grant will also provide funding for student fellowships, peer mentors, teaching assistants, faculty development workshops, invited speakers, and undergraduate research support.
In addition to on-campus programming, the initiative will culminate in the development of Tirakuna: The FLC Hub for Humanistic Engagement, an open-access online resource that will share teaching materials, student work, and innovative teaching models with educators and institutions beyond Fort Lewis College. Tirakuna is the Quechua term for “earth beings” or mountains and hills, which the Incas considered living, sentient things.
In addition to Pillen, professor of Art History in the Department of Art & Design and an affiliated faculty member in the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, project leads include Megan Alvarado-Saggese, Ph.D., assistant professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies; Michael Drake, Ph.D., assistant professor of Environment & Sustainability; Ryan Rhadigan, Ph.D., assistant professor of Native American & Indigenous Studies; and Christopher Webb, Ph.D., assistant professor of Anthropology.
The grant positions Fort Lewis College as a leader in interdisciplinary, community-centered humanities education grounded in relational approaches to learning and engaging with the world we live in.