Liggins and Hildebrand receive grant from Canada to create course on Niagara region underground railroad

SUNY Fredonia faculty members Dr. Saundra Liggins , department of English, and Dr. Jennifer Hildebrand, department of history, have recently received the Faculty Enrichment Program grant from the Government of Canada under their 2009-2010 Canadian Studies Grant Program. Liggins and Hildebrand received $6,305 to help support the development of a new course to be offered in Spring 2011, titled “Niagara’s Underground Railroad.”

The course will include a two-credit segment offered in Spring 2011, and a one-credit option offered during May term, where students will visit Underground Railroad sites in western New York and southeastern Canada.

The first half of the semester is planned to introduce students to the Underground Railroad in the context of nineteenth-century history and literature. In the second half of the course, students will be encouraged to think about the ways that the Underground Railroad is represented in a variety of forms today, from folklore to -often incorrect- mythology.

The final unit will be completed immediately after the semester ends, during May Term. In the course of one week, students will travel to important locations in the Niagara Region’s Underground Railroad history. These destinations will expose students to key locations and landmarks in Western New York and Southeastern Ontario, including the Canadian home of Harriet Tubman, who became famous for both her initial flight to freedom along the Underground Railroad and for her multiple journeys along the line to help others escape.

“We hope to introduce students to the history and literature of a people that most of them have not studied,” says Dr. Liggins. “The students will learn about the individuals who travelled or facilitated travel in this specific region, studying the ways that age, sex and familial status, for example, affected the experiences and the decisions of the runaways. Another one of our goals in maintaining this local focus is to demonstrate to our students, most of whom hail from the Western New York region, that history is made by people just like them, literature is written by people just like them, and that the actions of individuals can affect the unfolding of international history.”

As part of the grant, the course will be offered twice over the next four years.

The Canadian Government provides support for teaching, research, conferences and program activities that further the knowledge and understanding of Canada in the United States. They have a particular interest in projects that focus on the diverse aspects of Canada-U.S. relations.

Faculty Enrichment Grants provide faculty at accredited four-year U.S. colleges and universities an opportunity to develop courses with relevance to Canada that will be taught on a regular basis.
For more information about the Faculty Enrichment Program grant, contact Saundra Liggins at liggins@fredonia.edu.