The Historyapolis Project (�����Ի���) was created when Delegard, a current scholar-in-residence at Augsburg College, realized that her hometown of Minneapolis was blind to its own tumultuous history, more comfortable planning for the future than confronting the past. Augsburg students are deeply involved with the project, which aims to make the city’s history accessible and helps catalyze community dialogue around challenging aspects of local history.

Delegard holds a doctorate in history from Duke University and is the author of “Battling Miss Bolsheviki: The Origins of Female Conservatism in the United States” (Penn, 2012).  Delegard was also the co-editor, with Nancy A. Hewitt, for the two-volume textbook “Women, Families and Communities: Readings in American History“ (Longman Publishing, 2008). As part of the Historyapolis Project, Delegard is at work on a new history of Minneapolis, which is tentatively titled “City of Light and Darkness: The Making of a Progressive Metropolis in Minneapolis.”

Lansing, associate professor and chair of Augsburg’s Department of History, is the project’s principal investigator. Born and raised born in the Twin Cities, Lansing’s current project is “The Mill City: Minneapolis and the Making of America’s Food,” a history of the city’s central role in the creation and propagation of industrial food across the globe. His books include “Insurgent Democracy: The Nonpartisan League in North American Politics” (Chicago, 2015) and the co-authored “The American West: A Concise History” (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008). As a proponent of participatory democratic work, Lansing remains an active public historian. His many experiences include an oral history project with the Minnesota chapter of the Sierra Club, a congregational history, and bringing the Historyapolis Project to Augsburg.

Named after the director of research at the Wisconsin Historical Society from 1947 to 1965 who authored six books and numerous articles on the state’s history, the Alice Smith prize honors a public history project that contributes to broader public reflection and appreciation of the region’s past.

The members of this year’s Smith Prize committee are chair Aaron Shapiro of the University of North Carolina Charlotte, Amy Tyson of DePaul University, and Jeff Manuel of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

“In its first year, nominations for the Smith Prize highlighted the growing strength and vitality of public history work across the region,” said Shapiro. “My fellow committee members Jeff Manuel, Amy Tyson and I found the Historyapolis project’s integration of public history, undergraduate teaching, ability to share authority, effective use of social media and community engagement particularly compelling and acknowledge the vital contribution it makes toward fostering dialogue about the Twin Cities’ past, present and future.”

The Smith Prize committee will open nominations for the 2015 prize before the end of the year.

for more information.

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Minnesotans are invited to make history by taking part in the innovative Historyapolis Project which is using Facebook, Twitter, and the public to write the stories of the City of Minneapolis for an upcoming book.

“The citizens of our state are hungry for complex stories that will help them understand how Minneapolis became the wonderful, complex and contradictory place that it is,” said Kirsten Delegard, founder of the Historyapolis Project and scholar-in-residence at Augsburg College. “This project, the first to undertake the City’s history since 1940, will create a central clearinghouse where people can find a full story of our past.”

Delegard said that the decision to use the internet and social media to share and gather information will allow a broad community of people to participate in the project and to develop a serious but accessible historical work that bridges the gap between the academic domain and larger world.

The Historyapolis Project’s inventive approach recently was awarded an $82,000 Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage grant – the first time an academic department of history has received funding from the Arts and Cultural Heritage program for such a project. The grant supports engaging students in the research process and, according to the Minnesota Historical Society, creates a “central hub for the interpretation of Minneapolis history and an innovative model for urban collegiate history departments.”

“The awarding of this grant establishes Augsburg as a center for the study of Minneapolis’ past, one in which the broader public will play a powerful role,” said Michael Lansing, associate professor and chair of the Augsburg History Department. It builds on the Augsburg History Department’s long-term commitment to the public work of history and to expanding its role in the discipline of “public history” – a discipline that comprises the many and diverse ways in which history is applied to real-world issues.

Bringing the Historyapolis Project to Augsburg, Lansing said, extends this commitment into the digital arena, incorporating tools and skills that are increasingly critical for the practice of public history.

“This transformational research project creates an incredible immersion experience for students and is public work that brings the practice of history into the world,” Lansing said.

Background: Join the Historyapolis Project of Augsburg College by:

• “Liking” and contributing to the project on
• Following Historyapolis on Twitter at

Augsburg College is set in a vibrant neighborhood at the heart of the Twin Cities, and offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and nine graduate degrees to nearly 4,000 students of diverse backgrounds. Augsburg College educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. The Augsburg experience is supported by an engaged community that is committed to intentional diversity in its life and work. An Augsburg education is defined by excellence in the liberal arts and professional studies, guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran church, and shaped by its urban and global settings.

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