Muslim Milwaukee Project

The Muslim Milwaukee Project 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. Working in partnership with local Muslim community leaders since 2010, we have conducted a household survey and an individual survey, as well as individual and focus group interviews, and have organized various events.

The Muslim Milwaukee Project: Community and Care in Solidarity (2025-2026)

Building alliances and solidarity across difference takes time and presence in a range of spaces in the community. The Muslim Milwaukee Project began as a community-university collaboration through multiple close engagements, conversations, and interviews with Muslim leaders and community members. Our whole project from its inception speaks to the importance of slow care in knowledge production: It took a couple of years of working with Muslim leaders to develop two demographic surveys. Our long-term engagement and attentive listening to community members, leaders, activists, and artists, and our showing up at major events in local Muslim communities, has built solidarity over time.

Our book Muslims in Milwaukee: Placemaking, Belonging and Activism is expected to come out in the spring of 2026 with the Syracuse University Press within the Critical Arab American Studies book series. For this year’s C21 Collaboratory we will hold a community-oriented book talk-back. It is salient to us to continue in the vein of mutual collaboration, respect, and solidarity, and ensure a space where Muslims in Milwaukee can engage in and speak back to our book–our representation of a diverse religious minority with increasing social and political visibility and clout. This event will be open to the public with the aim of bringing together a diverse audience. 

Members

  • Caroline Seymour-Jorn (PI, Comparative Literature and Global Studies)
  • Anna Mansson McGinty (Geography and Women’s and Gender Studies)
  • Kristin Sziarto (Geography and Urban Studies)

Past Events & Media Coverage