Who is Demetrios?
Do you know who the City of Ypsilanti was named after? And do you know why? Who is Demetrios Ypsilanti? For this project, students were asked some or all of the following questions:
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How did Ypsilanti get its name?
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When did Ypsilanti get its name?
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Who named it Ypsilanti?
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How significant is the name?
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How do you feel about the name?
Can you answer any? If not, the answers can be found here and here.
Following a brief discussion, students were given a blank outline of Demetrios Ypsilanti and asked to populate it however they wanted. While Demetrios Ypsilanti was an important person, he may not best represent who the community of Ypsilanti really is and students were challenged to reimagine who Demetrios could be, as they are the true definers of the community.
The truth is, he was an arbitrary choice. Demetrios had never been to the area called Ypsilanti. In 1825, Judge Augustus Woodward, John Stewart, and William Harwood established a permanent settlement at the site where Gabriel Godfroy had once operated a successful trading post. Woodward chose Ypsilanti after the Greek war hero, Demetrios Ypsilanti, who made world news for fighting off the Turkish army in Greece’s war for independence. This would be like naming a small town with little ties to Ukraine after Volodymyr Zelenskyy today.
Each link below corresponds to the work created at that school for this project.
