What is VTDITC?
VTDITC: Hip Hop Studies at Virginia Tech is a practitioner-focused, student-driven, culturally responsive community engagement program that prioritizes experiential learning. The multifaceted and ever-evolving program is based in Southwest Virginia on the campus of Virginia Tech (a public, land grant university with a student body of approximately 38,000). VTDITC was co-created by a diverse transdisciplinary team and is now in our eighth consecutive academic year of programming. The program has iteratively developed since the Fall 2016 semester; we have successfully hosted more than 900 events.
Images taken by Bryce Daniels
News
May 19, 2022
VTDITC awarded Engagement Scholarship Consortium’s 2022 Excellence in Student Community Engagement Award!
You can check out the press release here if you want to learn more: https://engagementscholarship.org/upload/announcements/ESC_Awards_NewsRelease_2022_05192022.pdf
December 2, 2020
Culturally Responsive Community Engagement Programming And The University Library: Lessons Learned from Half A Decade Of VTDITC
You can check out the press release here if you want to learn more:
Mission Statement
Founded in 2016, VTDITC: Hip Hop Studies at Virginia Tech or Virginia Tech Digging in the Crates, exists to foster a sense of Ujima (community) among Hip Hop artists, fans, and scholars. Through Hip Hop culture, we equitably create scholarship alongside numerous communities. We hope to model that students’ and community members’ interests are worthy of academic study and to further strengthen Hip Hop Studies’ presence at Virginia Tech. We celebrate creative, critical scholarship through Umoja (Unity) and community-based experiential learning.
Land & Labor Acknowledgments
VT’s Land Acknowledgment & Labor Acknowledgment
Virginia Tech acknowledges that we live and work on the Tutelo / Monacan People’s homeland and we recognize their continued relationships with their lands and waterways. We further acknowledge that legislation and practices like the Morrill Act (1862) enabled the commonwealth of Virginia to finance and found Virginia Tech through the forced removal of Native Nations from their lands, both locally and in western territories.
We understand that honoring Native Peoples without explicit material commitments falls short of our institutional responsibilities. Through sustained, transparent, and meaningful engagement with the Tutelo / Monacan Peoples, and other Native Nations, we commit to changing the trajectory of Virginia Tech's history by increasing Indigenous student, staff, and faculty recruitment and retention, diversifying course offerings, and meeting the growing needs of all Virginia tribes and supporting their sovereignty.
We must also recognize that enslaved Black people generated revenue and resources used to establish Virginia Tech and were prohibited from attending until 1953. Through InclusiveVT, the institutional and individual commitment to Ut Prosim (that I may serve) in the spirit of community, diversity, and excellence, we commit to advancing a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community.
VTDITC adds…
We acknowledge that Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus was previously the site of the Smithfield and Solitude Plantations. From 1774 to 1865, the Preston family enslaved a total of 206 African men, women, and children on this land. We pay respect to those souls and acknowledge that Virginia Tech is undeniably tied to this legacy. It is our hope that you will reflect on this legacy as well.
Links
2022-2023 Program Data
Want More Info?
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True School Studios
(103 Media Building)
101 Draper Road NW
Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA
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3 easy ways to support VTDITC:
1.) Tell a friend to tell a friend to tell a friend about the program.
2.) Pull up to our events.
3.) Reach out about ways to contribute your time or talent.
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If you are interested in covering VTDITC, please reach out to our Program Director: crarthur@vt.edu
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crarthur@vt.edu
Image taken by Bryce Daniels