Summer institute participants visit the collection of Ehtiopian manuscripts at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Wendy Laura Belcher)
The Howard University Center for African Studies hosted a summer institute for 6th through 12th grade teachers on using the Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project in their classes.
Led by Wendy Laura Belcher, a professor of comparative literature and African American studies at Princeton, the PEMM project has compiled a collection of more than 1,000 stories on the Virgin Mary from the African continent. A digital humanities project, the site also has 2,500 Ethiopian paintings depicting stories about her and 1,000 parchment manuscripts in which the stories appear.
Belcher and Krista Johnson, director of the Center for African Studies at Howard, are co-principal investigators in a Princeton-Howard research collaboration on Presenting East African Manuscript Cultures. The collaboration is funded by the Princeton Alliance for Collaborative Research and Innovation (PACRI).
Belcher reached out to Johnson due to the award-winning CAS outreach team, headed by Brenda Randolph. This team, which includes Vanessa Oyugi, create curriculum and host teaching workshops for K-12 instructors eager to learn more about how to teach African intellectual history in effective and accurate ways.
As a culminating event for their first year together, Howard hosted the summer institute July 23-26. Each day, between 15 and 25 people attended in person and another 20 to 50 people participated online. Among the presenters on medieval African manuscript traditions were Belcher and PEMM team members Dawit Muluneh, Jeremy R. Brown, and Jenica Brown. Professor Helen Bond, of Howard’s Department of Education, and Lesina Martin presented on classroom applications for the PEMM research.
Others worked to give participants hands on experience in medieval African painting, calligraphy, and manuscript production, including the Ethiopian artist Aleme Tadesse, the language instructor Tafessework Gebeyehu, and Karen Brown.
Belcher said the summer session was a success. “We will spend next year developing curriculum out of the workshop, so that those who couldn’t attend will still have resources on working with African manuscripts, paintings, and stories,” she said. Further details on the summer program are featured on the PEMM website.
PACRI pairs Princeton researchers with peers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Besides Howard, Jackson State University, Prairie View A&M University, Spelman College and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore participate in PACRI. UNCF (United Negro College Fund) is also a partner.