Dear Friends,
There is always something about late summer – time that runs both fast and slow, the need to do something and also do nothing, and the gradual acceptance that we’re returning to familiar routines – that always surprises me. And so here we are: Welcome back!
C21 is embarking on the last year of our three-year programming arc on SLOW, where we have been exploring and experiencing slower-paced, longer-term embodied modes of attention and connection across Slow Knowing to Slow Care. This year’s theme of Slow Action proposes an adaptable and responsive mode of engagement that is deeply attuned to the world we each move through and that is founded on the practices, theories, and histories of collective organizing across our communities and institutions.
In conversation with both interdisciplinary humanities scholars and community leaders rooted in Milwaukee, C21’s 2026–2027 programming focuses on how the humanities can elucidate this oftentimes invisible labor of forming coalitions while sustaining shared commitments across time that together builds actionable pathways in response to the pressing issues of our time.
Here are some things happening at C21 this year:
- Watch out for our “Day of Action” happening in late Spring: a culmination of our thinking and enacting of humanities practices that make intentional, deliberate action possible. This will be our day-long humanities festival that celebrates the communities and collaborations in Milwaukee that cultivate our capacity to work collectively across difference so that we can act in step with others.
- Have a new book out? C21 will be hosting and co-sponsoring events that celebrate UWM humanities authors in our Humanities Book Series.
- We remain committed to supporting and uplifting humanities offerings from our friends, collaborators, and interdisciplinary partners, so our Human Club will be making its way to your department or community event. Let us know where we should be!
- We are unveiling our Story Cart Archive, a beautiful new platform that documents C21’s three-year-long community engaged work from “Food Journeys” and “Trust & the Vote” to “Attention Activism” with photos and recorded interviews.
- Our 6.5 Minutes With…C21 podcast introduces concepts of Slow Action through mini interviews with specialists across multiple disciplines, histories, and experiences.
- Seven new Research Fellows join the center from the UWM departments of Art and Design, English, Geography, Philosophy, Political Science, and World Languages and Cultures.
- Two Collaboratory Projects, “Brave Apologies” with faculty from the School of Information Studies in collaboration with Ex Fabula, and “Literary Action Lab” with faculty from the departments of English and Art and Design, will be offering public programs.
- We also welcome four Working Groups: Digital Cultures, Reproductive Justice, the Critical Asian Humanities Reading Group, and the Feminist and Queer studies Reading Group.
Come find out more at our Open House on September 17, 4-7pm! I hope to see you there, or at another gathering on campus or in our communities.
Jennifer Johung, C21 Director