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K-State Today

June 13, 2022

Wigfall selected to participate in NEH Institute

Submitted by Thom Jackson

La Barbara James Wigfall

La Barbara James Wigfall, associate professor of landscape architecture and regional & community planning in the College of Architecture, Planning & Design, has been invited to participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute "Toward a People's History of Landscape: Black and Indigenous Histories of the Nation's Capital" from June 12-July 1.

"Toward a People's History of Landscape — Part 1: Black & Indigenous Histories of the Nation’s Capital," is a level 1 institute that is being offered for the first time and convene at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C. The institute brings humanist scholars from across the country together to explore alternative approaches to scholarship and teaching landscape-oriented social histories, centering Black and Indigenous historical narratives in the founding of the United States and the District of Columbia. This institute's focus is on identifying promising approaches to teaching difficult or challenging landscape histories. The results of the summer institute will become part of an online repository of teaching modules available to faculty around the United States.

Wigfall is the first African American female faculty member to receive tenure and promotion at K-State in 1997, having garnered many university awards for distinguished service to minority education and outstanding undergraduate teaching. She initiated the K-State Hazardous Substance Research Center. Notably, she has worked with the community of Nicodemus for more than 40 years and was instrumental in the townsite's designation as a National Historic Site.