The East End Collaboratory: Reflections on a Multi-University Partnership with Community Collaborators

Abstract: For over six years, the East End Collaboratory has brought together faculty from two universities and multiple community partners to document and support African American history and culture via the region’s cemeteries. During this time, 23 unique faculty have made contributions. These faculty and their students have produced interactive maps for two cemeteries, generated an archive for over 10,000 documents, produced several publications, and significantly contributed to the clean-up of several cemeteries through thousands of volunteer hours. The faculty have come from a variety of disciplines and only one of the faculty members entered the Collaboratory with Richmond cemeteries as their research interest. The work of the faculty has at best played a small role in each faculty member’s promotion and merit review. This led to the simple question: what has kept the collaboratory going for so many years despite it being largely outside the incentive structure of the University? Through interviews with former and current faculty leaders, alongside reflections from community-engagement staff who have shepherded the collaboratory (the authors), we identified key insights related to four aspects of the collaboratory: Community Partnership, Morality/Ethics/Responsibility, Structures/Support, and The Cause and Place. The lessons learned from this inquiry can help provide a roadmap for how community organizations and faculty can partner to address a community need even when there is not a critical mass of faculty with the same research interests.

Narrative: In 2016, two University of Richmond faculty members, a biologist and an archaeologist in the Classics Department, volunteered together at the historic East End Cemetery in Richmond, VA. Established in 1897, the East End Cemetery had been one of largest burial grounds for African-Americans in the city, but due to a number of racist forces was abandoned in the second half of the 20th century. The two professors partook in a cemetery clean-up day organized by the Friends of East End (FOEE), a community organization of descendants and allies dedicated to the reclamation of this sacred space. Both professors decided to incorporate the burial ground into a course that they were teaching that year. They also, alongside several other professors, committed to creating a map of the cemetery.
In the following year, with the support of the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement (CCE), the two professors became the first faculty leaders of the East End Collaboratory. The Collaboratory consisted of both faculty from the University of Richmond (UR), a small private liberal arts university, and faculty from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), a large public R1 university, and members from the Friends of East End. During the first few years the focus was on the incorporation of the cemeteries into specific courses alongside the creation of the map.
In the ensuing years, the scope and scale of the work continued to evolve alongside the membership of the Collaboratory. By 2022, 23 unique faculty had spent at least a year in the collaboratory, with many having participated for several years. Through these faculty, over 700 students connected to the cemeteries and related projects. The collaboratory has produced some major products including interactive maps for two cemeteries, numerous publications and conference presentations, a digital archive including over 10,000 documents related to the lives of those who were buried in the various cemeteries, and the support and advocacy of the protection of these sacred sites. This work can be accessed through the Collaboratory's website: https://cemeterycollaboratory.org.
Across these two Universities, only one faculty member came to the Collaboratory with Richmond’s cemeteries as their major research focus. And while some faculty have completed small research projects related to the cemeteries, for most of the faculty this work represented at most a small side project in terms of their portfolio. Indeed, the collaboratory work has played only a minor role in promotion decisions. This led to the simple question: Why has the collaboratory continued for so many years despite it not being strongly linked to the incentive structures of the University?
Through interviews with current and past faculty leaders, alongside reflections of the community engagement administrators who have supported the Collaboratory (the authors), we identified insights related to four aspects of the Collaboratory: Community Partnership, Morality/Ethics/Responsibility, Structures/Support, and The Cause and Place.
One of the key aspects of the Collaboratory has been community partnership. While some community partners have changed through the years, there have been several key voices that have been part of the collaboratory for nearly the entirety of its existence. These partners were either retired or had jobs that provided them the flexibility to attend the monthly meetings. Partners without such flexibility tended to have fewer deep connections. Moreover, these partners were willing to speak truth to the University not fearing to call out the Collaboratory when it was falling short of its mission.
It was clear through the conversations that the work of the Collaboratory was not just an intellectual and pedagogical exercise but also an activity of social responsibility. There was a clear community need and the cemeteries themselves were an incredibly powerful representation of racial injustice. This issue of social responsibility was heightened when several of the cemeteries were gifted to a non-profit actor who proved to be incompetent steward of these spaces. This provided a greater focus and poignancy to the Collaboratory’s work as it served as a counterweight to the problematic approaches of the site’s stewards.
There were key structures and supports in place that have helped the Collaboratory through the years. Each University has provided faculty members with a small stipend to honor their time. The CCE has been able to provide key staff support to handle much of the logistics and planning. Yet, the vision has been set by faculty leaders and community partners, not the CCE’s staff. The mission of the Collaboratory was purposefully broad so that faculty from multiple disciplines could connect. And, particularly in the early years, tying the activity to specific courses helped create a structured timeline of activities.
Finally, the cause and place were important. At the beginning, the East End Collaboratory was focused on the East End Cemetery. Traveling to the cemetery and taking part in the clean-up days created an important shared experience for all involved. It was the important glue that bound such diverse individuals together. Moreover, the materiality of the cemeteries and the clean-up work mattered. In part, even a few hours of work could create a visible “win” as tombstones were uncovered and debris were removed from grave sites.
We believe the East End Collaboratory has had a significant impact on both the faculty who have been involved but also in the community. Indeed, the Collaboratory’s work has helped connect many of the disparate groups working to restore and preserve Richmond’s African-American cemeteries. The Collaboratory has also shown that deeply engaged and impactful University/Community partnerships do not have to be driven by a critical mass of faculty members with a shared research interest and background. Rather, if structured intentionally, such partnerships can be created between a diverse set of faculty, even across different universities, and community stakeholders. As long as the faculty have a desire to create change, there is opportunity.