LSA Bicentennial Theme Semester: Making Michigan

In conjunction with campus-wide events celebrating the university’s bicentennial in 2017, the College of LSA sponsored two distinct theme semesters. The first, Making Michigan, took place in Winter 2017 and focused on the university’s past and present. The second, Michigan Horizons, took place in Fall 2017 and examined the university today and the challenges it will likely face in coming generations. Both theme semesters were coordinated within the Department of History and Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies.

Making Michigan addresses the university’s past and present, its “making” over time, since its 1817 founding, as a center for cultivating knowledge and creativity across an expanding array of disciplines and arts; as a force in public affairs locally, nationally, and globally; as a workplace; and as a way of life for its students, faculty, administrators, and staff.

Courses, public events, and exhibits during the semester will emphasize change and continuity in university affairs as they have evolved over the whole course of the institution’s history—and will foster critical discussion of current issues in university life that excite interest among all members of its community. Broadly speaking, the theme semester will help students and faculty better answer the question, “Where are we today, and how did we get here?”