Invisible Indianapolis is directed by IUPUI Anthropology Professors Susan Hyatt and Paul Mullins and was originally supported by the 2016-2017 Charles R. Bantz Chancellor’s Community Fellowship. The Bantz Chancellor’s Community Fellowship recognizes Charles R. Bantz’s commitment to community-engaged research and scholarship, partnering IUPUI faculty, students, and community members in a year-long project. During 2016-2017 Invisible Indianapolis conducted research in collaboration with community organizations including the Concord Neighborhood Center, the Ransom Place Neighborhood Association, Etz Chaim Sephardic Congregation, and the Babe Denny Neighborhood Organization. While the project’s funding ended in Summer 2017, we will continue to share ongoing research on the project here on the blog.
Susan Hyatt has directed ethnographic research for a series of neighborhood-based studies in Indianapolis’ eastside, near-Southside, and Mapleton-Fall Creek. Perhaps the most prominent of these projects focused on the history of a multiethnic community on Indianapolis’ near-southside that was largely erased by 1960s interstate highway construction. The neighborhood was dubbed the “Neighborhood of Saturdays” by the research team and community collaborators, a reference to the Jewish observance of Sabbath on Saturday and an African-American neighborhood reunion that has taken place on the first Saturday in August for over 40 years.
Paul Mullins’ research has focused on urban displacement in Indianapolis, examining how a century-old, predominately African-American community was displaced and is now reconstructing its history. His scholarship has included archaeological excavations, documentary research, and oral history on Flanner House Homes, the present-day IUPUI campus, and postwar African-American suburbs. That research produced an oral history collection, The Price of Progress: IUPUI, the Color Line, and Urban Displacement, which was co-edited with Glenn White. The book illuminates the legacy of urban renewal and the erasure of African-American life in the near-Westside.
Jeremy Lahey is a graduate student in the IUPUI Department of Anthropology. His research focuses on urban communities and issues such as gentrification, connectivity to main hubs of the city, and community development. He has participated in several faculty-led research projects since 2014. In 2016 he was the recipient of the Plater Medallion for Civic Engagement. He graduated with a Bachelors of Art in Anthropology and Philosophy in May 2016.
Lynette Taylor is an undergraduate student in the History and Sociology departments of the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. She is also completing minors in Anthropology, Geography, Philosophy, and Africana Studies. Her research focuses on social movements including those of labor, environmentalism, and civil rights. She has participated in several faculty-led research projects since 2013 and has worked on campus as a former research assistant for the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute and current research assistant for the Frederick Douglass Papers in IUPUI’s Institute for American Thought. She has also been active on campus as an Ambassador for the Center for Research and Learning, the 2017-17 President of the Liberal Arts Student Council, and Past-President of Students for Fair Wages from 2013-2015.
Kyle Huskins is a graduate student in the Department of Education at IUPUI. His Thesis research in Sociology examined African-American suburbanization in Indianapolis.
Invisible Indianapolis 