Meet Susan Hyatt
Dr. Susan Hyatt is a community organizer and a teacher whose academic career and scholarship continue to be shaped by the years she spent working as a community organizer in Southwest Chicago (1981-89). When she returned to graduate school to complete a PhD, it was to explore how engagement in local-level activism transformed the worldviews of working-class and low-income women living in public housing in England. She joined the faculty at IU Indianapolis in January 2005 after having taught for 8 years at Temple University in Philadelphia. Hyatt was drawn to IU Indianapolis by its reputation for supporting faculty work on civic engagement and community collaboration. Shortly after joining the faculty at IU Indianapolis, she was chosen to participate in the 2006-07 Boyer Scholars Community of Practice, housed in the Center for Service and Learning, which focused on the development of faculty leadership in strengthening the campus’ commitment to its civic engagement mission.
Hyatt has directed ethnographic research for a series of neighborhood-based studies in Indianapolis, including on the 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 and post-war upward mobility. The neighborhood was dubbed the “Neighborhood of Saturdays” (also the title of a resulting book) by the research team and community collaborators, a reference to the Jewish observance of Sabbath on Saturday and to an African-American neighborhood reunion that has taken place on the first Saturday in August for over 40 years. Students partnered with community members, carrying out oral historical interviews and primary archival research. The research team assembled a rich collection of residents’ photographs and memorabilia that were scanned, catalogued, and archived on an accessible website maintained by the IU Indianapolis Digital Scholarship Libraries Team. The Digital Scholarship Team members at University Library have been key partners in this work.
During 2016-2017, Hyatt and her late colleague Paul Mullins were named the inaugural Charles R. Bantz Chancellor’s Community Fellows. Their project, “Invisible Indianapolis: Race, Heritage and Community Memory in the Circle City,” examined the history and material culture in a series of Indianapolis neighborhoods including the near Southside that had been largely invisible in public discourse. The goal of the project was to use ethnographic interviews and archival research to illuminate how otherwise “invisible” neighborhoods provide powerful insights into revealing the histories of the class, cultural, religious, and racial inequalities that continue to shape our city.
Hyatt also co-founded the Indiana chapter of a national (and international) program called the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program at IU Indianapolis. Inside-Out is a model for prison education that involves taking college students into correctional institutions (such as prisons, jails, work release centers) where they take courses together, interacting as peers in the classroom. Hyatt has partnered with several organizations in Indianapolis, including the former men’s prison IREF (Indianapolis Re-entry and Education facility, now closed), the Indiana Women’s Prison, Dove Recovery House for Women and PACE Indy (Public Advocates in Community re-Entry), to offer community-based classes that bring together participants in these programs with IU Indianapolis students where together they explore strategies for creating community change, particularly with respect to our correctional system. This work also led to her recent sabbatical semester research on barriers affecting access to higher education for people with justice-system involvement. She retired from IU Indianapolis in December 2023.
In her free time, Dr. Hyatt enjoys cooking, traveling, and watching British mysteries on tv.
I hope to elevate community voices that are not always heard in the public arena.
Dr. Hyatt
Top Photo: 2016 TRIP Showcase IU Indianapolis Chancellor Charles R. Bantz (far left), Dr. Hyatt (left middle), and the late Dr. Mullins (middle right). Bottom Left Photo: Dr. Hyatt addressing the Indy City Council about the Southside project. Bottom Right Photo: Dr. Hyatt speaking at a conference on community action in Durham, UK in 2014.
Top Photo: 2008 Inside-Out Graduation Class at the Indiana Women's Prison. Bottom Left Photo: Dr. Hyatt (left) and her research partner, the late Dr. Paul Mullins (middle) receiving award from IU Indianapolis Chancellor Emeritus Charles R. Bantz (right). Bottom Right Photo: Ethnographic Methods health research team presenting at the annual Community Health Partnership (CHEP) meeting 2017.
Q and A with Dr. Susan Hyatt
My mother had majored in Anthropology in college and as I got older, I used to read some of her college books which were classic ethnographies by people like Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict. I also loved my high school English classes, so I started college as an English major but by the end of my freshman year, I had switched my major to Anthropology. Once I took a course in Urban Anthropology and saw how anthropological theories and methods could be applied to understanding and addressing contemporary social problems, I was hooked!
I wouldn’t say I was trying to solve any one particular problem with my work; what I hope to do is to elevate community voices that are not always heard in the public arena. My hope is that through this work, we can gain a deeper understanding of how policies, that on the surface level appear to be neutral or impartial, are actually shaped by the same profound racial, economic, and other social disparities that have produced our very fractured and unequal neighborhood landscapes.
Interestingly, even when there is no concrete outcome from neighborhood work, the process of involving people in collaborative research activities is energizing and has the effect of bringing people together, sometimes to renew frayed social bonds. Community residents also discover that the issues that concern them are not the result of individual failures or inadequacies but that they are the consequence of structural inequalities that have resulted in the uneven distribution of resources. Sometimes we can collectively work on developing solutions to address some of these problems and concerns but implementing these ideas is often a challenge that requires a very long-haul commitment.
I love working with community residents and hearing their stories. There are some amazing tales out there in our Circle City neighborhoods. I also find that teaching Inside-Out courses in community settings is transformative, both for me and for the students who move out of their comfort zone to take these courses.
Students are integral to my projects. In fact, truth be told, they do most of the heavy lifting! Students are excellent interviewers and detectives – they often uncover sources about neighborhood history that I did not know about. And, it was students, for example, who came up with the idea for our scan-a-thons where we asked neighborhood residents to bring photos and other memorabilia to community locations where we scan and catalogue their materials while they wait. We can then preserve these images on a publicly accessible website.
All of my projects have been undertaken with the collaboration of neighborhood residents and community organizations. For every research project I have undertaken, my goal is always to produce some kind of product that will be accessible to and useful for community residents. These have included various neighborhood publications, digital mapping projects, a community play (once!) and student posters that organizations can use for their own purposes. I have also applied for and received grants jointly with local organizations to support work on issues of mutual concern or to complete student-authored projects.
I am retiring in December and hope to complete a lot of half-finished writing projects. I also plan to keep on teaching in prisons and other community spaces.
Bantz Fellowship Spotlight featuring Dr. Susan Hyatt
On Friday, October 13, 2023 from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m., Dr. Susan Hyatt talked about "Sue and the City: Adventures in Translational Research in Indianapolis." Dr. Hyatt talked about some of the most memorable collaborative projects that she has engaged in over the past 19 years in Indianapolis, and shared what each project has contributed to the mission of supporting translational research at IU Indianapolis.