Fellows Salon: Land Acknowledgment with Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner
The Fellows program is an opportunity to bring together Georgetown faculty from across the University—as well as visiting scholars—for community building, curricular development, and pedagogical experimentation. At these gatherings (also known as “salons” or “jam sessions”), the expanded Ethics Lab team comes together to share ideas and research, discuss best practices, and identify areas where their work overlaps through engaging and playful facilitation.
Prior to planning her jam session, Professor Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner had received various requests around campus to provide a land acknowledgement, an official version of which Georgetown does not currently have. So, when her turn to host a salon came around, she knew exactly what to do.
“Having been frustrated by the process [of creating a land acknowledgement], but wanting to do right by the communities whose ancestral home Georgetown occupies, I brought it to Ethics Lab. I thought, ‘If anybody is going to have some ideas it’s this really fantastic group of folks,’ so I essentially just gave [the team] my homework.”
To that end, Meissner created a format which could help her navigate the institutional challenges, dividing the team into “committees” tasked with answering specific ethical questions.
How would they conduct ethical research into whose ancestral history Georgetown occupies? What sorts of reparations could the university pursue for a meaningful land acknowledgement? Who should be involved in this process? What important ethical concerns might arise? What might go wrong?
Ethics Lab Fellows and team members grappled with these questions in their respective committees before sharing their thoughts with the full group. They considered whose land was taken as a result of Georgetown’s founding, and how to ethically interact with them.
Thinking about both short-term and long-term goals, they considered ways for moral and material reparations. A common thread across the committees was the importance of relationship-building, as well as meaningful and genuine acknowledgement.
A fascinating takeaway from the jam session, Meissner reflects, is how to define ‘acknowledgement.’
Using insightful everyday examples, the participants emphasized that in addition to genuine recognition, it means taking tangible action that reflects the mindset and attitude.
Participants reflected on the meaning of acknowledgment before diving into questions of process. The word “recognition” is the primary focus of the resulting word cloud. Other words present include credit, acceptance, gratitude, accountability, symbolism, knowledge, connection, attribution, and admission.