State of the Humanities MKE

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• Thursday, October 30, 4:00 – 6:30 PM
• 175 Curtin Hall
• 3243 N Downer Ave, Milwaukee, WI

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Overview

Join the Center for 21st Century Studies (C21) at UW-Milwaukee for a panel discussion that explores how Milwaukeeans and Milwaukee organizations might sustain, expand, and care for the humanities across our city.

In October 2024, the Consortium for Humanities Centers and Institutes’ World Humanities Report warned of extinction risk to human knowledge. In the year that’s passed since that report’s publication, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting lost its federal funding, the National Endowment for the Humanities was radically restructured, causing state humanities agencies to lose funding to the point of near closure, and multiple U.S. universities have taken steps to shrink, pause, or shutter humanities degree-granting programs.

But the resilience of humanities practices and institutions in the face of so much uncertainty evinces their value, and merits further dialogue.

The State of the Humanities MKE panel, moderated by C21 Director Jennifer Johung, invites four Milwaukee-based humanities advocates—Michael Carriere (MSOE), Art Derse (MCW), Jodi Eastberg (MIAD), and Maggie Nettesheim Hoffmann (Marquette)—to discuss:

• What’s important about the humanities in Milwaukee, especially in our current moment? 
• What are we fighting to sustain, expand, or ideate? 
• How can we care for the humanities in MKE? What does this look like? 

This event is free and open to the public. Space is limited. Prior registration is required.

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After the panel, guests are invited to head upstairs to C21’s headquarters for a reception with light refreshments and breakout discussions about actionable steps everyone can take to make Milwaukee a haven for humanists.

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About the Panelists

Michael H. Carriere is a professor of history at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), where he also serves as director of the MSOE Honors Program. His work has appeared in such publications as the Journal of Urban History, the Journal of Planning History, Cultural History, Reviews in American History, Pitchfork.com, and Salon.com. He is the co-author, with David Schalliol, of The City Creative: The Rise of Urban Placemaking in Contemporary America (The University of Chicago Press, 2021). He holds a Ph.D. in American history from The University of Chicago. 

Arthur R. Derse, M.D., J.D. is Director of the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, and is Julia and David Uihlein Chair in Medical Humanities, and Professor of Bioethics and Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW). He directs the MCW Medical Humanities Program and is co-director of the school’s Bioethics and Medical Humanities Scholarly Concentration. He directs the Art of Medicine through the Humanities course. Dr. Derse is past president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH). He is a fellow of the Hastings Center for Bioethics and of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He is a member of the American Law Institute. 

Jodi Eastberg, PhD, serves as the Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. Eastberg moved to Milwaukee in 1998 as a graduate student in the Marquette University history department where she received her PhD. She then served as a professor of history and in various leadership roles at Alverno College for 20 years. In her new role at MIAD, Eastberg leads a dynamic and passionate faculty offering high quality art and design programs. As a world historian, Eastberg specializes in sites of cultural and diplomatic interaction, especially those between Great Britain and China. Eastberg serves as the Vice President of the Layton Art Collection, Inc. an independent not-for-profit organization that acts as steward of the Layton Art Collection displayed at the Milwaukee Art Museum, on the board of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, and as a Trustee of the Higher Learning Commission. 

Margaret (Maggie) Nettesheim Hoffmann is the Director of Graduate School Community Initiatives and Student Experience at Marquette University. She is also the PI for a $1.3M grant from the Mellon Foundation and the Humanities Without Walls consortium to Marquette. HWW is a consortium of 16 midwestern universities headquartered at the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and aims to create new avenues for collaborative and interdisciplinary research, publicly engaged scholarship, and professional opportunities for faculty and graduate students in the humanities. She has consulted on humanities doctoral education reform with the American Council of Learned Societies, American Historical Association, the University of Texas, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Pittsburgh, and more. An historian by training, her research tracks the transformation of philanthropy in the Unites States during the Gilded Age and Progressive era with a special focus on political discourses critical of private giving to public institutions and has published her work with Bloomsbury, Adam Matthew, and Marquette University Press. 

Panel moderator Jennifer Johung is the Director of the Center for 21st Century Studies and Professor of Contemporary Art and Architectural History at UW-Milwaukee. Her book, Vital Forms: Biological Art, Architecture, and the Dependencies of Life (University of Minnesota, 2019), focuses on the ways in which contemporary biological art and architecture actively engage in formulations of life. She is also the author of Replacing Home: From Primordial Hut to Digital Network in Contemporary Art (University of Minnesota, 2012) which considers modes of dwelling and belonging in an ever-changing world, and the co-editor of Landscapes of Mobility: Culture, Politics and Placemaking (Ashgate, 2013). She has published widely on topics across performance, visual, and urban studies as well as bio-art and biotechnology. In addition to her research, she has curated exhibitions in Milwaukee, New York, LA, and Australia. With a background in performance studies, she teaches courses in contemporary art, new media, performance, and art museum studies.

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Getting Here & FAQ

We recommend parking in the UWM Student Union parking garage or the Lubar Business parking garage, which are $3 for the first hour, then $1 for each additional hour. The Zelazo Surface Lot offers limited free parking after 3PM. Free, time-limited street parking is available in the neighborhoods near Curtin Hall.

Curtin Hall is the tall, Brutalist building located just off Downer Ave. You can find us on this interactive campus map.

This event will not be livestreamed, but it will be recorded and posted to C21’s YouTube channel at a later date.

Questions? Email us at C21@uwm.edu.

This event is free and open to the public. Space is limited. Prior registration is required.

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