15th Annual Local History Roundtable APPROVED INT100/201!

Wednesday, March 20, 2024
1:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Robert C. Pew Grand Rapids Campus
Alumni, Community, Faculty, Staff, Students

Changing Lands: Past, Present, Future.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024 - 1:00 - 8:00 pm

Richard M DeVos Center - GVSU Pew Grand Rapids campus

Each year, the Kutsche Office of Local History hosts a free, public conference that explores different aspects of West Michigan history. This year, historians, gardeners, chefs, and other community activists will come together to discuss how humans have changed the very soil of West Michigan.

This year's keynote presenter is Dr. Jennifer Bonnell, Associate Professor of History at York University. Bonnell's work breaks down the history of honeybees in the Great Lakes region, how beekeepers and honeybee-driven agriculture have changed the Midwestern landscape, and how the threat of Colony Collapse Disorder changes everything.

Topics covered in other panels include agricultural history, Indigenous food ways, the use of POWs and foreign workers on West Michigan farms, and how communities commemorate and celebrate the Earth. Our other presenters include Kaya DeerInWater (Citizen Band of Potawatomi, Tribal Restoration Ecologist for AIHEC), Andrea Riley Mukavetz (Community Engagement Manager for the City of Grand Rapids), Camren Stott (Indigenous chef and founder of the Jiibay Project), Jennifer Tompkins (Director of Community History & Education for the Grand Rapids Asian-Pacific Foundation), Eric Gollannek (Director of the Saugatuck-Douglas History Center), Jeff Smith (founder of the Grand Rapids People's History Project), and Andrew Schlewitz with Jacey Adams (Grand Valley State University Latino/a & Latin American Studies).

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Location Information

Hager-Lubbers Exhibition Hall & Loosemore Auditorium

Richard M. DeVos Center - Robert C. Pew Grand Rapids Campus

401 W. Fulton Street, Grand Rapids, MI 49504

A printed, displayed pass is required to park for free in the Seward Lot.

Contact Information

Kutsche Office of Local History - [email protected] - gvsu.edu/kutsche - 616-331-8110

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This event was added to the calendar by Mary Williford (willifom@gvsu.edu) on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 and was last updated on Monday, February 19, 2024 at 3:20 p.m.