Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Center

In August 2017, Hamline was selected by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) to be one of ten universities nationwide to host a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center. This selection came with a $30,000 grant to create a campus center, which will, in accordance with AAC&U, “be designed to engage and empower campus and community stakeholders to break down racial hierarchies and create a positive narrative about race in the community.”

Through a competitive process, institutions were selected based on the ability of their proposals to create a positive narrative about race, identify and examine current realities of race relations in their communities, envision communities without entrenched racial hierarchies, and pinpoint levers for change and key individuals to engage. Hamline is proud to be at the forefront of such a vital endeavor.

Vision

Hamline University’s vision for a TRHT Campus Center is to create inclusive convening spaces for intergroup conversation, dialogue, and learning that incorporates conversation into individual and institutional action to create sustainable change for racial understanding and equity. The center aims to reconcile competing historical and contemporary racial narratives that encompass varied individual and collective truths and lived experiences. Working collaboratively with people, groups, and organizations in the community, the center will investigate knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes that build and sustain intersectional discovery, practice, and transformative healing.

These foundational pillars support this vision and guide the work:

  • Recognition of past and present injury and injustice based on racial hierarchy and white supremacy
  • Collaboration with and connection between historically marginalized and historically empowered communities to uncover and renegotiate dominate narratives and “truths”
  • Creation of strategies for sustainable reconciliation, restoration, and healing for individuals, institutions, communities, and society

Media coverage

To read more about Hamline’s TRHT initiative, see:

Contact information