The team wants to uncover how Asian communities responded to racial violence, the complex interactions between Asians and other communities of color, and how certain violent events might have prompted Asians to move out of Detroit neighborhoods to form new ethnoburbs.

Students are encouraged to think about problems in a culturally responsive manner while working on gaining a stronger understanding of personal biases, power and privilege. 

Museum founder Olayami Dabls, an artist and storyteller who grew up in Detroit, wanted the museum’s exterior to tell the same story as the strands and jars of colorful beads displayed inside. Since 1998, the African Bead Museum has drawn visitors from around the world. He partnered with U-M recently on the AfricanFuturist Greenhouse, designed to mimic bead patterns.

Today, Eglash applies his knowledge in a number of areas — including working with under-represented students in Detroit. His work has earned the Joan Durrance Community Engagement Award from U-M as well as a new research grant from the National Science Foundation. 

The tech pros will provide free, one-on-one support to entrepreneurs in their community. Tech pros will work between 30 and 40 hours a week with small businesses. UMSI and JEI are aiming to enroll 140 businesses. 

While in residence, fellows at the Radcliffe Institute present lectures and exhibitions to the public, participate in cross-disciplinary study groups, and work closely with undergraduate Harvard students who serve as research partners. 

Her partnerships with Detroit nonprofits fuel her fire for this work, Tawanna Dillahunt said recently during a conversation entitled, “Women in Tech: Closing the Gap,” showing how four women of color had found their way into technology-centric careers. 

Over the next three years, the team will focus their research on resource-constrained communities in Detroit’s Eastside neighborhood and a refugee resettlement agency that serves a public housing community in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

The project builds on Tawanna Dillahunt and Julie Hui’s partnership with the Friends of Parkside to pilot a “community tech worker” program to assist seniors requiring technology-related support. Tech workers will be embedded at Jefferson East to develop a sustainable, useful model that will help bridge the digital divide for small businesses.