Book Talk: A Conversation About Black Feminist Resistance in Trying Times
2026-04-17 11:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | Kuumba Juice & Coffee, 274 East Keefe Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53212, United States
Friday, April 17, 11am-1pm

Kuumba Juice & Coffee, 274 E. Keefe Ave., Milwaukee

Free & open to the public; RSVP Requested

Overview

We welcome Dr. Stacie McCormick and Dr. Nessette Falu to a conversation around Black Feminist Resistance and the power of storytelling.

In conjunction with Black Maternal Health Week (April 11-17), UWM’s C21 Reproductive Justice Collaboratory and La Revo Books are pleased to cohost this community conversation around the role of stories in our esteemed authors’ own work. The authors will join us virtually, and we invite the community to come in to the space at Kuumba to share in this important conversation.

Please RSVP by Monday, March 30th. Refreshments from Kuumba will be provided.

RSVP ON EVENTBRITE NOW

Books

You don’t need to read the books in order to participate in this event, but both are available through our partners at La Revo.

Purchase Unseen Flesh: Gynecology and Black Queer Worth-Making in Brazil by Nessette Falu.

Purchase We Are Pregnant with Freedom: Black Feminist Storytelling for Reproductive Justice by Stacie McCormick.

About

Nessette Falu, Ph.D. is a Black queer feminist and cultural anthropologist with sub-disciplinary specializations in medical anthropology, Black queer studies, Black feminist studies, and reproductive justice studies. Her intellectual work analyzes the intersections of anti-Blackness, heteronormativity, medicine, trauma, resistance, and freedom. She intervenes, broadly, to understand forms of hidden, silenced power and the abuse of power in gynecology and medicine. Her past clinical practice of seventeen years as a Physician Assistant (neurosurgery, internal medicine, HIV care, hematology/oncology, and pain management) critically informs her research, publications, collaborations, and public phasing, and design work. The convergence of her clinical expertise with a social science, humanistic scholarly endeavors is an invaluable, unique asset for intellectual and public impact into the Austin community as well as with international and transnational far-reaching outcomes. Her research and professional trajectories inform her public engagement and creative work, which is steered toward social justice in medicine and raising public awareness. At UT Austin, she developed Gxnecologx Justice Lab (https://www.gxnecologx.org), a Black feminist laboratory for research and design, publicly launched in December 2023.

Dr. Stacie McCormick is a Mississippi-raised Black feminist scholar and writer. She is an Associate Professor of English, Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies and Women and Gender Studies at Texas Christian University (TCU). Her work takes up a number of subjects such as: representations of the body, land, sexuality, and the ongoing resonance of slavery in contemporary Black writing and performance. She is the author of Staging Black Fugitivity and co-Editor of the Special Issue of College Literature, Toni Morrison and Adaptation. Central to her work is community. Whether it is in the classroom, in the organizing space, or in her scholarly work, McCormick sees community building as a key form of resistance and liberation.

Operating since 2022, Reproductive Justice works to create a space where researchers at UWM and reproductive justice community advocates in Milwaukee can work together to address systemic injustices disproportionately affecting Black, Latinx, and other women and trans people of color. As a collective, we have held a variety of events in both academic and community spaces, and seek to continue this important work in the face of uncertainty in the reproductive justice space. We work across various aspects of reproductive injustices, including issues of access across zip codes, early childhood education, birth justice, and physical environment — to name just a few. We have learned alongside our community partners how important it is to not silo this work, and aim to continue bringing attention to reproductive injustices in Milwaukee and act as a resource for making substantial changes to improve the conditions within which individuals can exercise their “human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities” (SisterSong).

La Revo Books offers new and used books for and by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and Latinx readers.

En-Vision Zine Submissions Due DEADLINE EXTENDED
2026-04-24 00:00 - 23:59
DEADLINE EXTENDED to Friday, April 24, 11:59 PM

View zine submission instructions here.

About

The En-Vision Zine is a part of C21’s inaugural graduate-led public humanities program, En-Vision: Toward a Queer Ethics of Slow Care, led by Isabella Fincher. En-Vision is about slowing down, radical self-care, and fostering networks of mutual support and caregiving. We welcome all members of the UW-Milwaukee student community to submit their creative work!

This zine will explore creative practices and embodied experiences of slow care for individuals living with chronic illness and impairments. We’re seeking creative writing and visual art projects related to the themes of queerness and an ethic of slow care. Priority will be given to submissions related to chronic illness, disability, and related critical approaches. We welcome creative, inspired, and innovative projects that push the boundaries of this theme and foster a sense of community care and support.

This initiative will host an embodied writing workshop blending mindfulness and creative writing to explore themes of slowing down, radical self-care, critical disability studies, and fostering networks of mutual support and caregiving on April 7th, 2026. Workshop participants and the broader campus community will also be invited to submit artwork and creative writing pieces to the zine.

Questions?

Questions and inquiries are welcome! Please review submission details and contact Isabella Fincher at ifincher@uwm.edu with any inquiries.

Human Club: Little Free Library Walking Tour
2026-04-30 17:00 - 18:00 | UWM Union SET Office, Student Union E153, 2200 E Kenwood Blvd., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53211, United States
Join us for a walk with the Human Club to explore the Little Free Libraries in our campus community!

We will start our journey at the UWM Center for Student Experience and Talent in the Student Union. Then, we will head north through the campus neighborhoods, making stops at the Little Free Libraries we find along the way. We will hear from local Little Free Library volunteers about how they set up their libraries and what motivated them to start this project!

The Little Free Library motto is, “Take a Book, Leave a Book.” In the spirit of this motto, we ask that you bring a book (or two!) to donate to a library. Your donation will help keep these neighborhood libraries stocked with stories.

We invite both pets and children to join us on this adventure. Please be prepared to walk at least a mile as we explore the neighborhood around UWM and share the joy of books!

What are Little Free Libraries?

Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Their mission is to be a catalyst for building community, inspiring readers, and expanding book access for all through a global network of volunteer-led Little Free Library book-exchange boxes.

Their vision is a Little Free Library in every community and a book for every reader. They believe all people are empowered when the opportunity to discover a personally relevant book to read is not limited by time, space, or privilege. Through Little Free Library book exchanges, millions of books are exchanged each year, profoundly increasing access to books for readers of all ages and backgrounds.

About Human Club

Human Club is the Center for 21st Century Studies’ newest initiative, which features free field trips around Milwaukee and humanities gatherings with your fellow humans. Comes with a membership punch-card!

C21 Research Fellows Presentations
2026-05-15 15:00 - 17:00 | 939 Curtin Hall, 3243 N Downer Ave, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53211, United States
Friday, May 15, 3:00 – 5:00 PM

939 Curtin Hall, 3243 N. Downer Ave.

About

Join the Center for 21st Century Studies for concluding presentations from our 2025-26 cohort of research fellows.

Centering the humanities in the belief that groundbreaking ideas come from diversity of opinions, disciplines, and experiences, each year, C21 offers fellowships that provide the time, space, and collegial support to generate new knowledge and ideas. This year’s cohort conducted research and developed interdisciplinary projects that aligned with Slow Care, C21’s 2025-26 research and programming theme.

This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

2025-26 Research Fellows

Sharity Bassett (Women’s & Gender Studies)

During this fellowship, Bassett worked on multivocal and collaborative autofiction, a project she began in summer 2025 with EQI/MMSD interns and a workshop series at Ring Lake Ranch in Wyoming. This work is focused on creating connected futures by engaging with difficult stories, fostering empathy, and facilitating productive conversations.

Katharine Elizabeth Beutner (English)

In the 2025-2026 fellowship year, Beutner revised the follow-up novel to Killingly, her second novel, and initiated a new environmental writing project.

Kidiocus King-Carroll (African & African Diaspora Studies)

Carroll researched and developed a podcast that situates Black migration to Milwaukee as a lens for exploring slow care and its impacts.

Lynn Goerdt (Social Work, UW-Superior)

Goerdt developed a well-being innovation lab through UW-Superior’s Pruitt Center for Mindfulness and Well-being that supports change-making efforts on innovative ideas to address the most challenging barriers to well-being, prioritizing projects that support youth and young adults in northwest Wisconsin.

Yevgeniya Kaganovich (Art & Design)

Kaganovich continued an ongoing project that integrates fungi into and around and sculpture, focusing on a review of literature relevant to the project, experimentation with wild and domesticated fungal material, and field and forest work to enable sharing the experience of the project with colleagues.

Nan Kim (Anthropology)

Kim worked on a project about how narratives and interpretations that center the Anthropocene persist as dissenting forms of environmental memory.

Gabriela Nagy (Psychology)

Nagy is an immigration researcher who examines how the social contexts in which immigrants reside affect their wellbeing. During her fellowship, Nagy sought to submit to publications, code recordings of intervention sessions, and leverage community-engaged methods to refine and optimize her work.

Book Talkback - Muslims in Milwaukee: Placemaking, Belonging, and Activism
2026-05-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Islamic Resource Center, 5235 S 27th St, Greenfield, Wisconsin, 53221, United States
Overview

Wednesday, May 20, 7:00-8:30 PM

Islamic Resource Center, 5235 S 27th St, Greenfield, WI 53221

Join the Center for 21st Century Studies and the Muslim Milwaukee Project for the launch of a new book on the Muslim communities in Milwaukee by UWM professors Anna Mansson McGinty, Caroline Seymour-Jorn, and Kristin Sziarto. There will be a panel talkback featuring prominent members of Milwaukee’s Muslim community—Waheed Ahmed, Othman Atta, Amal Azzam, Janan Najeeb, and Brother Will Perry—moderated by Fahed Masalkhi, PhD.

About Muslims in Milwaukee: Placemaking, Belonging, and Activism

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.

Purchase your copy from Syracuse University Press

About the Panelists

Expand All
Waheeduddin Ahmed

M. Sc., PhD., University of London. Scientist (retired).

Founder president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, 1983.

Founder of Islamic Information Service Inc., 1985.

Founder Milwaukee Islamic Dawah Center, 1993.

Edited various journals including: Islamicus, The Commentator and Shahadah.

Initiated the demographic survey of Muslims in Milwaukee with mutual agreement between the Dawah Center and the Chancellor of UWM, 2010/11. The project was developed by the team that authored the book: “Muslims in Milwaukee”.

Othman M. Atta

Served as President of the Executive Board of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and currently serves as its Executive Director and primary spokesman. The ISM is the largest Muslim organization in Wisconsin and operates three Mosques in the greater Milwaukee area as well as the largest Islamic school in the nation.

Worked as an attorney in private practice for over 20 years.

Former Advisory Board Member, Marquette University Law School

Former Representative of the Islamic Society on the Board of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee

Former Adjunct Faculty Member at Cardinal Stritch University (taught courses on Religious Culture of Islam). Also taught courses on Islam and Middle-East Politics for UW-Extension.

Recipient of the Wisconsin Chapter – ACLU “Civil Libertarian of the Year Award”

Recipient of Wisconsin Law Journal’s “Leader in the Law Award”

Former Member, FBI Civil Rights Advisory Group. Graduate of FBI Citizen Academy and Milwaukee Police Department’s Citizen’s Academy

Former Commissioner, Milwaukee Commission on Police-Community Relations

Former Board Member, Wisconsin Chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Delivered hundreds of speeches to business, interfaith and other groups and participated in numerous lectures, panel discussions and debates at local universities.

Married with four children.

Amal Azzam
Amal Azzam is a Muslim American interdisciplinary artist based in Milwaukee, WI. Her practice explores the layered complexities of identity, trauma, and freedom through mediums including screen printing, found objects, fiber, and photography. She aims to reflect society back onto itself, showing its contradictions and the struggles of belonging.

In 2025, Azzam was awarded the Mildred L. Harpole Artist of the Year by the Milwaukee Arts Board. Her work has been nationally exhibited at the Hunter Museum of American Art (Chattanooga, TN), the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, WI), Woman Made Gallery (Chicago, IL), and the James Watrous Gallery (Madison, WI). She has also co-curated exhibitions such as Wherever Home Is at the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters and Al-Nisa at Walker’s Point Center for the Arts.

Amal is also the co-founder of Fanana Banana (“Fanana” meaning female artist in Arabic), a Milwaukee-based arts movement that creates space for Muslim, MENA, and underserved artists to share their work. Fanana Banana has grown into a community hub for exhibitions, panels, and collaborations.

Her work and story have been featured in WUWM – Milwaukee’s NPR, PBS Wisconsin, Artdose Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, and Cream City Review, where her art appeared on the cover in 2024.

Janan Najeeb
Janan Najeeb is a pioneering Muslim community leader, advocate, and educator, widely recognized for her work at the intersections of faith, justice, gender and civic engagement. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Muslim Women’s Coalition (MWC), and the Islamic Resource Center, Wisconsin’s first Muslim library and cultural hub.

Najeeb has founded several groundbreaking initiatives, including the Wisconsin Muslim Journal, Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance, Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival, and the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine. She also serves on the Governor’s Council on Domestic Abuse and holds board positions with the Rotary Club of Milwaukee, Wisconsin Public Radio, and the Wisconsin Historical Society. She chairs both the Religious Leaders Caucus of MICAH and the City of Milwaukee Commission on Community Wellness and Safety. For more than two decades, she has co-chaired and emceed Milwaukee’s citywide Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration.

A frequent media voice and public speaker, Najeeb has delivered more than 2,000 presentations across the country on Muslim identity, civil rights, women’s rights, refugees, and interfaith dialogue. Her published works include contributions to The Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, The Journal of Disability & Religion, Interfaith Engagement in Milwaukee, as well as training manuals for statewide agencies. She has been featured in major outlets including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The New York Times, Islamic Horizons, Aljazeera, Wisconsin Public Radio, among many others.

Her trailblazing leadership has earned her numerous awards, including the 2025 City of Milwaukee Lifetime Achievement Award, 2024 Milwaukee Magazine Woman of Distinction Award, the 2023 Lucille Berrien Humanitarian Award, the 2022 Milwaukee Rotary Person of the Year Award, and the 2019 Frank Zeidler Award for Social Justice and Activism.

Najeeb is married to Dr. Waleed Najeeb and is the proud mother of five and grandmother of six.

Brother Will Perry
Will Perry is a lifelong Milwaukee resident whose career reflects a deep commitment to faith‑based civic engagement and community building. He holds a master’s degree in management and is widely known for his long tenure as Executive Director of the Milwaukee Islamic Dawah Center (MIDC), where he played a key role in strengthening community institutions, expanding social services, and fostering collaboration across Milwaukee’s diverse neighborhoods.

Under his leadership, MIDC became a vital hub for outreach, re-entry service, and support for individuals and families facing social and economic challenges.

In addition to his work at MIDC, Will currently serves on the Board of the Muslim Community Health Center, supporting efforts to improve access to culturally responsive healthcare. His broader leadership experience includes previously serving as Director of the Milwaukee Muslim Funeral Home, as well as serving as Past President of the Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance.

Will is a retired member of the Milwaukee Fire Department and an honorably discharged Sergeant of the United States Marine Corps. He is widely respected for his integrity, steady leadership, and commitment to dialogue, belonging, and compassionate community care.

Will Perry is a devoted family man, serving as a husband, father, and grandfather.

Fahed Masalkhi, Ph.D. (Moderator)
Dr. Fahed is a Senior Teaching Faculty member in the Department of Global Studies at UW-Milwaukee and serves as the coordinator of the Arabic Program. His academic and professional path has been anything but conventional.

Initially trained in the STEM disciplines, he holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Engineering and spent a significant portion of his early career in the corporate sector. While that chapter provided valuable experience, it ultimately left him searching for deeper intellectual fulfillment and a greater sense of purpose.

This pursuit led him back to academia, where he transitioned into the humanities. He earned an MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and went on to complete a PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2021. His interdisciplinary training—spanning technical, literary, and theological fields—continues to shape both his teaching and his scholarship in meaningful ways.

His work is anchored in two main areas of inquiry; both rooted in Qur’anic Studies. The first centers on Arabic language instruction, with a particular emphasis on pedagogical approaches that make the language accessible and meaningful across diverse learning environments. The second engages the field of Islamic Studies more broadly, with a focus on how it can respond thoughtfully to the intellectual and cultural needs of students in Western educational contexts.

About the Islamic Resource Center & Muslim Women’s Coalition

The Islamic Resource Center, a project of Muslim Women’s Coalition, is Wisconsin’s only Islamic cultural center and lending library.

The Muslim Women’s Coalition (MWC) is dedicated to building an equitable and inclusive Wisconsin, where diversity is celebrated and all individuals are valued. Their mission is to empower Muslim women and girls through education, leadership, outreach, and wellness programs, helping them reach their fullest potential while creating a positive impact on the broader community.

Founded in 1994, MWC began as a local resource organization with the goal of promoting a more accurate understanding of Islam and Muslim women. Over the years, MWC has remained committed to leading positive community change through advocacy, dialogue, education, and outreach, using faith-based values to ensure dignity and equity for all.

mycollective: Slow Growing in the Time of Trees - Artist Reception
2026-06-06 14:00 - 17:00 | Lynden Sculpture Garden, 2145 West Brown Deer Road Milwaukee, WI 53217
Reception: Saturday, June 6, 2 – 5 PM

Exhibition: May 23, 2026 – June 7, 2026

Lynden Sculpture Garden, 2145 West Brown Deer RoadMilwaukee, WI 53217

Artist reception for mycollective: Slow Growing in the Time of Trees exhibition at Lynden Sculpture Garden with an unveiling of Matthew Vivirito’s Framework, the second work in Lynden’s MATERIALIZE series of outdoor projects.

About the Exhibition

Slow Growing in the Time of Trees presents speculative objects produced over the course of two growing seasons by mycollective, a mycology-focused artist collective that brings together four creative practitioners and mushroom enthusiasts: Jim Charles, Lane Hall, Yevgeniya Kaganovich, and Lisa Moline. Together, they examine the durational nature of trees, mushrooms and humans, the symbiosis between trees and their human and non-human partners, and interactions between natural and reclaimed materials over time. Experimenting with both naturally occurring and cultivated living mushroom cultures, mycollective generates work with visible fungal fruits and invisible mycelial networks intertwined with trees. mycollective will be joined by guest Kate Beutner.

Working at the Lynden Sculpture Garden, where Yevgeniya Kaganovich has long been an artist in residence, mycollective bridges the space between humans, sculpture, and the landscape. To grow mushrooms, the artists have been making sculptural forms out of accessible materials—recycled plastic bags, cardboard, birch bark, tree branches—and filling them with spore-inoculated grain and straw. These forms are then installed in and around the tree-sculptures that Kaganovich began in 2019 as part of her residency, Tree Intuits Chair. While these experiments are always visible on the grounds, Kaganovich and her collaborators also offers programs, such as a fall tree and mushroom walk, that introduce the public to the specifics of their project.

About the Artists

mycollective is a mycology-focused artist collective that brings together four creative practitioners and mushroom enthusiasts: Jim Charles, Lane Hall, Yevgeniya Kaganovich, and Lisa Moline.  Kaganovich is currently in her second artist residency at the Lynden Sculpture Garden, where she is working on Tree Intuit Chair, a portion of her divergent fates project. She has a longstanding working relationship with Lynden, which was home to grow, a previous durational project. Kaganovich, Charles, Hall, and Moline were colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for many years, and began working together as mycollective, experimenting with myceliated sculptures, more recently. Kaganovich was a 2025-2026 C21 (UWM College of Letters & Sciences Center for 21st Century Studies) Fellow, and mycollective began their work at Lynden as part of a 2024-2025 C21 Collaboratory that included Kate Beutner. Hall and Moline have been pursuing creative research as the collaborative team badscience for over 25 years. They are also the co-founders of the Overpass Light Brigade.

C21 Open House & Launch Party
2026-09-17 16:00 - 19:00 | Curtin Hall, 9th Floor, 3243 N. Downer St., Milwaukee, WI 53211
Thursday, September 17, 4:00 – 7:00 PM

939 Curtin Hall, 3243 N. Downer Ave.

Free & open to the public; refreshments will be served

Join the Center for 21st Century Studies (C21) on Thursday, September 17 from 4:00 to 7:00 PM for our annual open house, plus a bonus digital archive launch party.

Get to know C21 fellows, staff, & collaborators. Contribute to an art project about collective action. Learn more about this year’s programming theme, Slow Action, and our upcoming public events. Peruse the our new digital archive for C21’s Story Cart project, featuring hundreds of interviews from everyday Milwaukeeans about food access, the US voting system, and the attention economy. Ask us questions about our call for graduate-led programming. Sign up for C21’s Human Club to join monthly outings to human-friendly humanities events. Plus, enjoy great company and some delicious snacks on us.

This event is free and open to the public.

Not familiar with UWM’s campus?

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.

Graduate Public Humanities Application Information Session
2026-09-25 10:30 - 11:30
Friday, September 25, 10:30 – 11:30 AM

In-person option: 929 Curtin Hall, 3243 N. Downer Ave.

Teams option: REGISTER HERE

Master’s and Doctoral students in any discipline at UW-Milwaukee are invited to propose an event or program to the Center for 21st Century Studies for the Spring 2027 semester. Selected submissions will be developed in collaboration with C21 staff and will be provided with a working budget of $1,000. This event programming offers a hands-on opportunity that will make a strong addition to any graduate CV. Applications may be submitted by individual students or groups. C21 reserves the right to have final approval of all projects. All project proposals MUST include a public-facing component or other tangible final deliverable that will be enacted, presented, or disseminated on C21’s Day of Action, a day of events celebrating the Slow Action theme, slated for May 8, 2027.

C21 is seeking proposals that take up the theme of Slow Action – a mode of engagement that purposefully resists the logic of zero-sum efficiency in favor of durable, values-rooted ways of being and doing together. The theme invites graduates to investigate critical questions surrounding forms of action that are not rigid or unchangeable but rather are flexible, responsive, and deeply attuned to the world we each move through. While strikes, protests, and other visible forms of collective action capture immediate public attention, they are made possible only by the slower, less visible work of building trust, forming coalitions, and sustaining shared commitments across time. It is this foundational labor – patient, relational, and often unrecognized – that Slow Action seeks to illuminate. Learn more about how to apply.

C21 will host a hybrid information session about the Call for Graduate Public Humanities Programming Application on Friday, September 25, 10:30-11:30 AM. This session will cover information on the Slow Action theme, the Day of Action, programming, tips on writing a strong application, and frequently asked questions. Attending the information session is not required to apply, but is highly encouraged. Attend in-person at 929 Curtin Hall, or via Teams (registration required for access to the Teams link).

C21 strongly encourages questions and inquiries in advance of submissions. Please contact C21 Graduate Fellow Chloe Kwiatkowski kwiatk52@uwm.edu with questions.

Graduate Public Humanities Programming Application Deadline
2026-11-01 23:59
About

DEADLINE: November 1, 2026, 11:59 PM

APPLY NOW

Master’s and Doctoral students in any discipline at UW-Milwaukee are invited to propose an event or program to the Center for 21st Century Studies for the Spring 2027 semester. Selected submissions will be developed in collaboration with C21 staff and will be provided with a working budget of $1,000. This event programming offers a hands-on opportunity that will make a strong addition to any graduate CV. Applications may be submitted by individual students or groups. C21 reserves the right to have final approval of all projects.

C21 is seeking proposals that take up the theme of Slow Action – a mode of engagement that purposefully resists the logic of zero-sum efficiency in favor of durable, values-rooted ways of being and doing together. The theme invites graduates to investigate critical questions surrounding forms of action that are not rigid or unchangeable but rather are flexible, responsive, and deeply attuned to the world we each move through. While strikes, protests, and other visible forms of collective action capture immediate public attention, they are made possible only by the slower, less visible work of building trust, forming coalitions, and sustaining shared commitments across time. It is this foundational labor – patient, relational, and often unrecognized – that Slow Action seeks to illuminate.

All project proposals MUST include a public-facing component or other tangible final deliverable that will be enacted, presented, or disseminated on C21’s Day of Action, a day of events celebrating the Slow Action theme, slated for April or early May 2027. (Currently, planned offerings for the Day of Action include a panel discussion, an artist-led workshop, a curated story slam, and an afterparty.)

Proposals MUST:

Be rooted in, or linked to, humanities practices

Include a component that is accessible to the public

Be achievable by May 28, 2027 (including time for any post-production) with a $1k budget

Relate to the Slow Action theme

Include a public-facing component or other tangible final deliverable that will be presented or disseminated on C21’s Day of Action

Comply with UWM rules, regulations, and spending restrictions

Proposals MAY NOT:

Request additional funding for a current C21-sponsored Collaboratory or Working Group

Allocate funding for activities taking place after May 28, 2026

Solely support professional development activities for an individual (e.g. travel to a conference, professional certifications, etc)

Primarily support research or projects conceived and organized by UWM faculty or staff

Possible deliverables might include (but are not limited to):

A one-off event or performance that occurs on the Day of Action

Series of community-driven and/or publicly engaged events with one component that occurs on the Day of Action

Series of academic events with one component that occurs on the Day of Action

Visual art exhibition with open hours during the Day of Action, or a catalog that is distributed on the Day of Action

Original research, writing, or other publication that aligns with Slow Action, to be presented or distributed on the Day of Action

An experimental educational toolkit that aligns with Slow Action, distributed on the Day of Action

A digital humanities project, such as a short documentary, multimedia publication, interactive map, or online archive that aligns with Slow Action that can be accessed on the Day of Action

In addition to funding, C21 will provide administrative oversight for Day of Action, and can provide some additional assistance coordinating logistics, making connections, communicating about your project, and limited graphic design support. Any events produced for your project will be included in C21’s event calendar and promoted as a C21-supported program. C21 can also provide a dedicated working space for programming endeavors, which may include private office space and/or access to one of three reservable meeting spaces.

LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO APPLY

Information Session

C21 Leadership Team will host a hybrid information session on Friday, September 25, 10:30-11:30 AM

In person: 939 Curtin Hall

Register here for a remote option on Teams

This session will cover information on the Slow Action theme, the Day of Action, programming, tips on writing a strong application, and frequently asked questions.

Attending the information session is not required to apply, but is highly encouraged.

Questions?

C21 strongly encourages questions and inquiries in advance of submissions.

Please contact C21 Graduate Fellow Chloe Kwiatkowski kwiatk52@uwm.edu with questions.
