Book Talk: Muslims in Milwaukee: Placemaking, Belonging, and Activism

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• November 13, 3:00 PM
• American Geographical Society Library
• Free & open to the public

Muslims in Milwaukee explores the everyday lives, identities, and activism of Muslims in a midsized Midwestern city. Milwaukee is one of America’s most segregated cities, yet within its boundaries, a vibrant Muslim community is reshaping narratives and embodied practices of belonging, civic engagement, and urban placemaking. While considerable scholarship on Muslim Americans has concentrated on larger metropolitan centers like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, or on Detroit’s historic Arab neighborhoods, this book turns our attention to an understudied city where Muslim communities are small but rapidly growing, and where their experiences unfold within distinct local landscapes of race, segregation, and opportunity.

Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic fieldwork, surveys, and extensive interviews with community members, students, artists, activists, and leaders, the authors examine how local political, economic, and historical structures shape Muslim American experiences and civic participation, situating their analysis within the dual dynamics of belonging on one hand and exclusion and discrimination on the other.

This event is organized by UWM Geography as part of the department’s Fall 2026 Colloquia series. It is co-promoted by the Center for 21st Century Studies as part of C21’s UWM Authors in Conversation initiative.

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About the Authors

Authors Anna Mansson McGinty, Caroline Seymour-Jorn, and Kristin M. Sziarto make up the Muslim Milwaukee Project, a C21-sponsored collaborative group that aims to further understanding of the Muslim communities in the Milwaukee area, to highlight the diversity of identities and experiences and challenge anti-Muslim racism, and to build networks among scholars, artists, and community members who share these goals. 

Anna Mansson McGinty is associate professor of geography and women’s and gender studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She is the author of Becoming Muslim: Western Women’s Conversions to Islam.

Caroline Seymour-Jorn is professor of global studies and comparative literature at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She is the author of Cultural Criticism in Egyptian Women’s Writing and Creating Spaces of Hope.

Kristin M. Sziarto is an associate professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She has published numerous articles in journals such as Contemporary Islam, Environment & Planning A, Political Geography, and Territory, Politics, Governance.