GHC to use Latino Americans 500 Years of History grant to host two events in March
Georgia Highlands College was recently selected as one of three recipients in Georgia to receive a competitive “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History” grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. Georgia Regents University and the University of Georgia also received grants.
As one of the 203 grant recipients selected from across the country, GHC was given a cash grant of $3,000 to hold public programming about Latino history and culture.
GHC will be holding two events in March.
The first event will be a screening of “Empire of Dreams,” an episode of PBS’s Latino Americans documentary, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Stephen Blankenship, GHC associate professor. It will take place on March 2nd from 2 to 4PM on the Cartersville campus in the Cartersville Student Center. Refreshments provided by La Parrilla Mexican Catering and two GHC student organizations (La Mano and Brother 2 Brother).
The second event, a “Latino American Identities Panel,” will be hosted in Marietta on March 3rd from 5 to 7PM in the Mansour Conference Center (995 Roswell St., NE, Suite 100, Marietta). The panel discussion will be about what it means to be Latino in Georgia. It will feature members of the local community, as well as a special welcome from GHC President Don Green.
Both events are free and open to the public.
“Latino Americans have a rich and varied history and culture,” Green said, “and I’m thrilled that GHC has this opportunity to explore this topic in our community.”
GHC Reference and Instruction Librarian Maggie Murphy stated that the Georgia Highlands College Libraries will use the “Latino Americans” grant award to hold four public programs in all between July 2015 and June 2016. Key themes from the “Latino Americans” series that Georgia Highlands College intends to explore in these programs include: immigration, education and the expression of identity in Latino culture.
“The programming this grant will allow us to hold complements our institution’s focus on extending educational opportunities to our underserved Latino communities by providing us a forum to host events that will promote cross-cultural understanding,” Murphy said.
Latino Americans: 500 Years of History, a public programming initiative produced by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Library Association (ALA), is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: The Humanities in the Public Square.