Robert Lee has a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Heidelberg. Before joining the Cambridge faculty, Dr. Lee was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. His articles and digital scholarship on the relationship between Indigenous dispossession and U.S. state formation in the American West have received awards from the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Western History Association, the Society for History in the Federal Government, and others. Dr. Lee is currently writing a book on U.S. expansion into the Louisiana Purchase and stewarding a digital mapping project tracking the historical creation of real estate on the U.S. public domain.
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The 2022 Kops Freedom of the Press Lecture
Land-Grab Universities
Tuesday, September 13, 2022, 5pm EDT
Event Overview
The United States used nearly 11 million acres of Indigenous territory taken from almost 250 tribes, bands, and communities through more than 160 violence-backed land cessions to launch the land-grant university system in 1862. New York’s only land-grant institution, Cornell University, was chartered in 1865.
In 2020, the groundbreaking "Land-Grab Universities" investigation identified and detailed how expropriated land formed the foundation of land-grant colleges across America. Two years after the story sent shockwaves through the U.S. education system, questions remain about the debts that universities owe to Indigenous communities as well as the limits of reparative justice when access to current information remains a major obstacle to further research and reporting on the roots of inequalities in academia.
Join us for this discussion featuring Grist Editor-at-Large Tristan Ahtone and Dr. Robert Lee, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, to examine the troubled legacy of land-grant universities and their impact on tribal nations.
In 2020, the groundbreaking "Land-Grab Universities" investigation identified and detailed how expropriated land formed the foundation of land-grant colleges across America. Two years after the story sent shockwaves through the U.S. education system, questions remain about the debts that universities owe to Indigenous communities as well as the limits of reparative justice when access to current information remains a major obstacle to further research and reporting on the roots of inequalities in academia.
Join us for this discussion featuring Grist Editor-at-Large Tristan Ahtone and Dr. Robert Lee, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Cambridge, to examine the troubled legacy of land-grant universities and their impact on tribal nations.
What You'll Learn
- Indigenous reporting practices and their influence on the "Land-Grab Universities" investigative report
- How the disciplines of history and journalism can be bridged
- Opportunities for and obstacles to restorative justice in higher education
Speakers
Robert Lee
Assistant Professor of History and Fellow of Selwyn College
University of Cambridge
Assistant Professor of History and Fellow of Selwyn College at University of Cambridge
Editor-at-Large at Grist
Tristan Ahtone is a member of the Kiowa tribe and is Editor-at-Large at Grist. Mr. Ahtone previously served as Editor-in-Chief at the Texas Observer and Indigenous Affairs Editor at High Country News. His stories have won multiple honors, including a George Polk Award, an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, a Sigma Award, a Society of News Design Award and a National Magazine Award nomination. A past president of the Native American Journalists Association, Mr. Ahtone is a 2017 Nieman Fellow and a director of the MuckRock Foundation.
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