Emory Awarded $2.4 Million for Partnership with Muscogee Nation Co-Led by ACLS Board Member Malinda Maynor Lowery

The Mellon Foundation has awarded Emory University and the College of the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma a $2.4 million grant to develop programs advancing Native and Indigenous Studies and the preservation of the Mvskoke language.

The two institutions will forge collaborative learning communities and research initiatives that will connect the respective campuses under the leadership of Malinda Maynor Lowery, Cahoon Family Professor of American History at Emory; Carla Freeman, interim dean of Emory College of Arts and Sciences; and Monte Randall, president of the College of the Muscogee Nation. Lowery is a member of the ACLS Board of Directors, and Freeman is an ACLS Research University Consortium representative.

Mellon is supporting a partnership that allows members of the Emory community to learn from and listen to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the College of the Muscogee Nation. Following their lead is crucial if we are to create education for healing and for the 21st century challenges our students and communities face. I am excited about continuing to get to know one another, to walk together and to facilitate the relationship between Muscogee people and their homelands.

Malinda Maynor Lowery

Cahoon Family Professor of American History at Emory University and member of the ACLS Board of Directors

Left: Citizens of the Muscogee Nation conduct a teach-in on the Emory University Quad in October 2022. Photo by Sarah Woods, Emory Photo/Video.