On June 21^st-23^rd, Cynthia D. Porter traveled to Emory University (Atlanta, GA) to attend the final the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Intention Foundry, defined as “a forum for advancing equity, justice, and anti-racism for emerging scholars, ACLS society leaders, and university interlocutors.” In 2020, a $2 million grant was awarded to the ACLS by the Mellon Foundation that funded a three-year summer institute series, which was initiated that following summer and concluded in June 2023. The Senior Program Officer Jovonne Bickerstaff designed the program, which she brilliantly co-facilitated with Program Officer Keyanah Nurse.

Porter was invited by the President of the German Studies Association, Sara Hall (U. Illinois – Chicago) to participate in the multi-day workshop with Linguist and German Studies colleague Richmond Embeywa (Emory U.).

The trio joined scholars from across the Humanities to discuss and brainstorm endeavors to benefit the respective professional cultures of disciplinary organizations by focusing “on advancing equity, inclusion, and justice within the academy.” In May, both Porter and Embeywa presented brief “Moonshots,” each pitching an idea for potential implementation at the organizational level for the benefit of the general German Studies field. Together, Hall, Porter, and Embeywa began the preliminary steps to merge both proposed Moonshots to create a project that they will continue developing in the coming years.