Montgomery College criminal justice professor and program coordinator Bridget Lowrie has been selected for the 2026 MC-Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship cohort, a yearlong academic partnership that connects college classrooms with Smithsonian collections, scholars, and digital resources. The fellowship theme, "Fostering a Culture of Critical and Ethical Learning to Shape Future Leaders," will focus on leadership and ethics in a rapidly changing world.
The MC-Smithsonian Faculty Fellowship, housed in the College's Paul Peck Humanities Institute, grew out of a collaboration with the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology and the Smithsonian Learning Lab. The initiative, the first of its kind between the Smithsonian and a community college, has involved 256 Montgomery College faculty and more than 26,000 students and their families since 1998. For more information about the fellowship program, visit the Paul Peck Humanities Institute's fellowship page.
Lowrie will use the fellowship to develop a project on civil disobedience, leadership, and ethics that connects museum artifacts to contemporary questions in criminology. Her proposal includes potential partnerships with the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian, as well as virtual artifact collections that help students examine the intersections of disability, protest and justice.
"As an attorney and criminal justice professor, I see students wrestling every day with questions about power, fairness, and accountability," Lowrie said. "Working with Smithsonian collections on civil disobedience and social movements will give them concrete objects, stories, and images to ground those conversations, not just abstract theories."
The interdisciplinary fellowship is open to faculty from all three Montgomery College campuses. Fellows participate in seminars with Smithsonian curators and educators, explore on-site and virtual exhibitions, and design projects that embed museum resources into their courses. Lowrie's students will begin engaging with the fellowship project in fall 2026 through class visits, virtual collections, and research assignments focused on leadership, ethics, and civic engagement.
This selection matters because it represents a significant investment in applied, ethical education for future criminal justice professionals at the community college level. By integrating primary historical sources and artifacts into criminology curriculum, the fellowship addresses a critical need for contextual, ethical training in a field grappling with complex societal issues. The project's focus on civil disobedience and social movements provides students with historical frameworks to examine contemporary questions of justice, power, and accountability, potentially shaping more thoughtful, ethically-grounded practitioners. For an institution serving over 26,000 students, this fellowship demonstrates how community colleges can provide high-impact, resource-rich educational experiences that prepare students for leadership roles in their communities and professions.
