Denise A. Spellberg, a professor 

of history at The University of 
Texas at Austin, headlined the 
annual Interdisciplinary Islamic 
Studies Seminar Symposium on 
Thursday where she discussed 
Thomas Jefferson’s connection 
with Islam. 

Spellberg opened the address 

to an audience of 20 faculty and 
graduate students in the Michigan 
League 
by 
explaining 
that 

Jefferson knew more about Islam 
than most of his contemporaries. 
She said he went out of his way 
to study the faith and meet its 
practitioners.

“As a historian of the American 

founders and their interest in 
Islam and Muslims, and as one 
who teaches Islamic studies, I 
think the precedence of Thomas 
Jefferson 
remains 
important, 

because 
he 
once 
imagined 

Muslims here in the U.S.,” she 
said.

She went on to say the few 

scholarly books that consider 
Jefferson’s involvement in the 
Muslim 
world 
emphasize 
a 

“dominant negative paradigm.” 
She said such books emphasize 
“Muslim” and “American” are 
terms most often placed in binary 
opposition as the eternal “them” 
and “us.”

Spellberg’s work focuses on 

challenging such a dichotomy 
and is documented in her book 
“Thomas 
Jefferson’s 
Qur’an: 

Islam and the Founders.”

At the address, she discussed 

how the ideas of Islam influenced 
the 
United 
States’ 
founders 

and subsequently transformed 
“imagined” Muslims — a group 
considered outsiders in the 18th 
century — into exemplars of the 
United States’ ideals of religious 
pluralism and civil rights.

“Thomas 
Jefferson 
in 

particular was a visionary — a 
man who planned for a nation 
that included Muslims as future 

citizens, 
despite 
sometimes 

simultaneously 
expressing 

negative views of Islam,” she 
said. “The ideal of their future 
presence and shared American 
spaces — this imagined future, 
while notional — contains key 
elements of what today might be 
considered an aspect of American 
exceptionalism.”

Such 
exceptionalism, 
she 

explained, refers to the precedent 
that anyone of any religion might 

reside in the United States with 
citizenship 
and 
equal 
rights 

— ideals that she believes are 
attacked under President Donald 
Trump’s administration.

In light of this statement, the 

symposium in general focused 
on the effect of the Trump 
administration on Islamic studies 
and was inspired by solidarity 
movements such as Black Lives 
Matter, the response to the 

Building on the strength 

and national and international 
recognition of the University 
of 
Michigan’s 
Mobility 

Transformation 
Center 
and 

Mcity, the entirity of automated 
vehicle testing has officially 
been branded Mcity.

The Mobility Transformation 

Center launched in 2013 as 
a public-private partnership 
between 
government 
and 

industry to expand research 
on driverless cars. The MTC 
introduced Mcity in July 2015, 
as the world’s first testing 
ground for advanced mobility 
vehicles and technology.

Mcity 
quickly 
gained 

worldwide name recognition, 
which motivated the University 
to consider changing the name 
of the entire center. In an 
email interview, Susan Carney, 
the director of marketing and 
communications 
for 
Mcity, 

highlighted the importance of 
capitalizing on this growing 
recognition.

“We wanted to build on 

that strength,” Carney wrote. 

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, April 14, 2017

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Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 67
©2017 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

See MCITY, Page 3

MTC now 
rebranded
under the 
name Mcity

RESEARCH

Mobility Transportation 
Center will take on the 
more recognized brand 

SOPHIE SHERRY

Daily News Editor

Islamic Studies symposium keynote 
address features UT Austin professor

Denise A. Spellberg discussed Thomas Jefferson’s involvement with Muslim world

JENNIFER MEER
Daily Staff Reporter

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

See KEYNOTE, Page 3

Legend, a 7-year-old collie, 

makes his way into C.S. Mott 
Children’s Hospital for his 
afternoon shift. By his side are 
his owner and Jared Wadley, 
the senior public relations 
representative 
at 
Michigan 

News. The two are a part of 
Therapaws of Michigan, an 
organization 
that 
provides 

therapeutic and educational 
canine visits to the Washtenaw 
County area.

Wadley began volunteering 

about seven years ago with his 
now-retired therapy dog Bella. 
Bella was a frequent visitor 
at the University of Michigan 
Cardiovascular 
Center 
for 

about six and a half years. Now 
Wadley and Legend can be 
found at Mott.

While the process to become 

a certified therapy dog is 
extensive, Legend seemed to 
have some of the necessary 
characteristics instilled within 
him. Wadley noted Legend’s 
personality made him a good 
fit to be a therapy dog.

“He’s just a friendly dog,” 

See DOGS, Page 3

Volunteer
Therapaws
dog brings 
joy to U-M

HOSPITAL

Dog brought to Michigan 
Medicine proves to be 
therapeutic for patients

KENNEDY WERNER

Daily Staff Reporter

As 
part 
of 
the 
closing 

ceremonies for the SHARE 
vigil, a 24-hour event hosted 
by the Students for Holocaust 
Awareness, Remembrance and 
Education, students read names 
of people who died during the 
Holocaust and heard from five 
Holocaust survivors.

The survivors attended the 

closing ceremonies Thursday 
night at University of Michigan 
Hillel to tell their stories, talk 
to students and share music 
they sang during the Holocaust. 
SHARE hosted this ceremony, 
following the reading of names 
out of a book in front of the 
Espresso 
Royale 
on 
South 

University Avenue, as one of its 
annual events.

The students who attended 

the event noted how valuable 
it is to hear survivors’ stories, 
which is the motivation for 
many of the events SHARE 
plans. For LSA sophomore Lilah 
Kalfus, member of the SHARE 

board, 
this 
sentiment 
rang 

especially true, as both of her 
grandparents were Holocaust 
survivors. 

“We’re 
one 
of 
the 
last 

generations to be able to talk 
to survivors, so we are just 
trying to provide as many 
opportunities to do that, like 
my kids won’t be able to talk to 
a Holocaust survivor,” Kalfus 
said. 

LSA sophomore Kyla Klein, 

a member of Hillel, echoed 
this 
sentiment, 
emphasizing 

how important these types of 
conversations are in the current 
political climate.

“My whole life I’ve been very 

interested in the Holocaust 
and just how it happened 
exactly,” Klein said. “I think 
it’s really cool to gain this 
type of perspective; especially 
with what’s happening in the 
world right now, it’s important 
to 
recognize 
systematic 

oppression and genocide and 
the Holocaust.”

LSA 
senior 
Eitan 
Katz, 

who was a board member 

24-hour vigil 
highlights
significance 
of Holocaust

Native American students share

uncertainty over bicentennial exhibits

See VIGIL, Page 3

DESIGN BY MICHELLE PHILLIPS

CAMPUS LIFE

Held at Hillel, the ceremonies completed 
the day-long read of victims of the tragedy

ERIN DOHERTY
Daily Staff Reporter

The community, making up less than one percent of the University, reflect on inclusion 

Some 
Native 
American 

students are elated by a recent 
exhibit 
that 
aims 
to 
bring 

awareness to the role Native 
Americans had in the founding 
of the University of Michigan 
but overall there is an underlying 
concern about the ways the 
University 
is 
representing 

Native Americans during its 
bicentennial celebrations. 

The 
“Native 
Americans: 

Michigan’s Foundation” exhibit, 
which is one of seven pop-
up 
art 
installations 
named 

“Stumbling 
Blocks” 
seeking 

to bring awareness to some of 
the difficult moments of the 
University’s history, has led 
Native American students to 
point to some of the issues 
with representing the Native 
American identity on campus.

On Ingalls Mall, one of these 

“Stumbling 
Block” 
exhibits, 

a raised plaque, highlights a 
sizably 
smaller, 
permanent 

plaque that already exists in the 

ground nearby to commemorate 
a gift of land from three 
Native American tribes to the 
University in 1817.

For Native American student 

Kaitlin Gant, an LSA senior, 
one of her biggest concerns was 
the lack of dedication given to 
other equally significant effects 
Native Americans have had on 
the history of the University.

“While I think it made a 

profound impact and drew more 
attention to the importance of 
Native American contributions 
to the campus, a sign is where the 

attention stopped,” Gant said.

Gant discussed the how the 

plaque came about as a result 
of Native American student 
activism on campus and protests 
led by Native students in the 
early 2000s advocating for the 
removal and University support 
of a student organization that 
historically had openly mocked 
and ridiculed Native American 
culture. The organization, then 
called Michigamua, reportedly 
appropriated Native American 
culture, going so far as using 

DYLAN LACROIX
Daily Staff Reporter

See BICENTENNIAL, Page 3

JEREMY MITNICK/Daily

University of Texas at Austin Professor Denise Spellberg gives the keynote speech about Thomas Jefferson’s connection with Islam as part of the 
Interdisciplinary Islamic Studies Seminar Symposium on Thursday.

