The Michigan Society of Fellows opened the academic year with a day in Detroit devoted to scholarship, art, and fellowship.
The retreat’s morning program at the University of Michigan Detroit Center featured presentations by five senior fellows of the Society. Their talks ranged across literature, history, sociology, physiology, engineering, and the experience of work:
- Benjamin Paloff, “What Do You Actually Do?: A Lesson in Humanity from a Shanghai Crosswalk”
- Bénédicte Boisseron, “Lost Roots”
- Ormond MacDougald, “Ruminations of a Fat Physiologist”
- Alford Young Jr., “Dignity at Work: African American Lower-Tier—but Essential—Workers During COVID”
- Margaret Wooldridge, “Keeping the Lights On and Getting to Work: Challenges of Power and Propulsion”
Together, the presentations demonstrated the breadth of inquiry represented in the Society and created opportunities for discussion across disciplines.
Following the morning program, the group visited the recently renovated Michigan Central Station. Society members explored the historic building before continuing to the Detroit Institute of Arts.
At the museum, curator Ben Coleman led a tour of Rivera Court and the American galleries. The group examined the rich details of Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry Murals and considered the works in relation to Detroit’s artistic, industrial, and cultural history.
The retreat concluded with dinner at the Scarab Club, one of Detroit’s oldest arts organizations. Founded in 1907 by artists and art patrons, the club has long served as a gathering place for the region’s creative community. Its current clubhouse opened in 1928 and includes a remarkable record of Detroit’s cultural life: signatures covering the ceiling beams of its second-floor lounge. Among them are the names of Diego Rivera, photographer Margaret Bourke-White, artist Leroy Foster, and writer John Dos Passos.
From senior fellows’ presentations to visits to three distinctive Detroit institutions, the retreat gave Society members a day to exchange ideas, encounter the city’s history and culture, and build connections across cohorts and fields.
