Land Grab CT

 

About Land Grab CT

The Land Grab CT project is produced UConn’s Greenhouse Studios in conjunction with the Native American Cultural Programs (NACP) and Native American and Indigenous Students Association (NAISA), and the Dodd Impact initiative at the Human Rights Institute.

 

The Land Grab CT project was inspired by the Land Grab U project, which extensively collected and mapped land data tied to land-grant universities and the 1862 Morrill Act. Land Grab CT is a localization of the data from this project, as well as an expansion of understanding land-grant institutions in a larger colonial context. We aim to contextualize the University of Connecticut’s place in the colonial system by focusing on the acquisition and control of the land UConn currently resides on as well as the parcels of land tied to UConn through the Morrill Act. This project is meant to inform viewers about UConn’s history and invite them to interrogate their assumptions about the systems of higher education in America.

 

The Future of Land Grab

 

The Land Grab CT team hopes to use the content created during this project to help recenter UConn’s place as a land-grant university. By informing UConn affiliates and building bridges with other land-grant institutions, we hope to add to a larger movement of restorative justice built around a better understanding of the Morrill Act and subsequent educational acts that accumulated land and wealth for white settlers, a legacy that is still felt into the present day. We aim to foster conversations and dialogues and build networks to achieve these goals.

 

The Development of Land Grab

 

Land Grab CT initially began when team members Glenn Mitoma and Sage Phillips applied for a grant with the intention of identifying land parcels from the Morrill Act that tied to the University of Connecticut. The day after being awarded the grant, the Land Grab U project was published, which is a rigorously detailed project that traced the land parcels and money tied to every Land-Grant University in the United States. It defined the Morrill Act based on land and wealth accumulation and the violence backed treaties that helped create it. Because of its incredible depth, Glenn and Sage began to pivot their goals to continue building off the work the LandGrabU team had done.

 

Soon, the project was brought to Greenhouse Studios for further development. After sessions brainstorming, consultation and collaboration, the current LandGrab CT website began to take form. The team researched, synthesised information, formulated theses, and designed web layouts. The goal was to create an interactive and engaging experience that educates viewers with a wider historical perspective to encourage them to interrogate their assumptions about land grant universities and the education system as a whole.

 

Luisa Fernanda Arrieta Fernandez

Luisa Fernanda Arrieta is a doctoral candidate in the History Department at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on national museums as stages for the performative embodiment of the state and as tools for the construction of national identities.

Special Thanks

Tristan Ahtone and Bobby Lee: Land Grab U

Jiff Martin: Sustainable Food System Educator, UConn Extension

Steven Gavazzi: The Ohio State University

Shaquanna Sebastian, Kiara Ruesta-Cayetano: UConn NACP

Mike Stanton: UConn Journalism

Christopher Clark: UConn History Department