The Global Arts and Humanities is committed to community-engaged programming that connects communities to shared histories and cultivates cross-cultural dialogue. Central to this work is the  understanding that history is a living practice continuously re-articulated across generations. The recursive process through which inherited knowledge is given form could be considered a form of intergenerational composition. As history circulates — through stories, documents, rituals, and everyday practices — it is continually interpreted and transformed. History thus emerges as co-constructed through creative acts that narrate the past and carry it forward.

Supported in part by the Global Arts + Humanities and Bexley Public Library, the “Bigger than Me: My Story, My Culture Intergenerational Heritage Workshops and Children’s Books Publication Series” exemplifies the value of intergenerational knowledge. This program is facilitated by Professor Michelle Wibblesman (Spanish and Portuguese) and Youth Services Manager Julie Perdue (Bexley Public Library). This project empowers children and their families to research and write about family history and reconnect with their cultural heritage.

Intergenerational Exchange

Bigger Than Me workshops bring children and parents/grandparents/other family members together as co-explorers in researching, gathering materials, conducting oral history interviews and publishing their unique stories. The program engages adults and children as co-participants in an intergenerational exchange redefining collaborative research and writing as quality family time. 

Trust and Respect as Cornerstones

A key measure of program efficacy is Bigger Than Me’s ability to bring together a constellation of activities for lasting impact. Trust and respect are at the heart of this program — the time that busy families invest; the reassurance children get from having their parents as allies; the respect families show for the children’s agency and creativity as emerging authors.

Cultivating Research Mindsets

With a “Yes, and…” attitude, Bigger Than Me clears a path for children’s imagination and supports their visions as researchers and authors. The program embraces pedagogies of play that foster wonder and curiosity as building blocks for research. By emphasizing listening, interdependent thinking and collaboration, finding humor in research, reflecting together and often, and embracing life-long learning — the program equips participants to ethically navigate landscapes of research, imagination and experience.