Image of Lonely No More! logo : white background with black text

Lonely No More! (LNM) was a series of programs exploring the making and unmaking of loneliness, isolation, and connectedness.

Over the course of the Spring 2022 semester, C21 offered a wide array of programming and content centered on loneliness: its human and nonhuman sufferers, its physical and virtual environments, and the social structures which alternately seek to both alleviate and weaponize it.

C21 designed LNM with multiple points of access and multiple ways of knowing – of interest to experts and accessible to general audiences.


Art Exhibition

We invited one-page written responses (poetry, micro-stories), artwork, and social change ideas in response to our survey results. Over 150 respondents from five countries shared sensory and story-based interpretations of the experiences of loneliness, connectedness; as well as tactics they use to move from one feeling to another. See the Final Survey Report here.

Selections from the survey were exhibited on campus and online.


6.5 Minutes With… Podcast

  • Colleen Gallambos, Helen Bader Endowed Chair of Applied Gerontology at UWM on the National Academy of Sciences report on Social Isolation that came out in Febrruary 2020.
  • Peter Sands, Professor of English at UWM, on the theme of loneliness in the writing of Kurt Vonnegut.
  • Sonia Zhang, PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the New School, on her research on designing robots for human companionship.
  • Nigel Rothfels, Professor of History at UWM, on animal companionship.
  • Stephanie Gibson, PhD Candidate in Art History at UPenn, on her research on memorials to trauma, including prisons dedicated to solitary confinement.
  • David DiValerio, Professor of Religious Studies at UWM, on his research on ancient practices of isolation and meditation among Tibetan monks.
  • Josh Rivers, PhD Candidate at UWM, on loneliness, connection, and game design.
  • Chikako Ozawa-de Silva, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Emory, on her research on lonely societies, especially Japanese youth.

Roundtable Conversations

These virtual gatherings of scholars and leaders were designed to inform and deepen conversations on a range of topics. Each one has its own curated list of readings/viewings that can be integrated into formal and informal classroom discussions.

Lonely Infrastructure (March 30, 2022)

What are the physical and social infrastructures that are contributing to “lonely societies” or that can be mobilized to support the increasing number of people living alone?

How might we study, talk about, and address loneliness and the built environment? What kinds of social arrangements might we foster to reconsider loneliness and connection, especially between urban centers and rural villages? Are some populations more vulnerable to loneliness than others?

This conversation featured the following experts:

  • Eric Klinenberg Helen Gould Shephard Professor in the Social Sciences and Director of The Institute for Public Knowledge, NYU
  • Chikako Ozawa-de Silva Assoc Professor of Anthropology, Emory University
  • Joan Johnson Director of the Milwaukee Public Library System
  • Jason Danely Reader in Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University
Poster featuring the Lonely Infrastructure roundtable participant list and a postcard featuring the city of Milwaukee
Nonhuman Kinship (April 13, 2022)

In what ways does loneliness manifest for nonhuman animals and in the nonhuman world? How might we rethink loneliness and connection with nonhumans in mind? As we reimagine and reinvent kin, how do spaces for human-nonhuman connection grow and develop in the age of robots, machines, computers, and AI?

This conversation featured the following experts:

  • Barbara J. King Professor Emerita of Anthropology, The College of William & Mary
  • Kite aka Suzanna Kite Ogalala Lakota performance artist, visual artist composer, and PhD Candidate at Concordia University
  • Juno Salazar Parreñas Assistant Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Cornell University
  • Sonia Zhang PhD Candidate in Anthropology at The New School
Poster featuring the Nonhuman Kinship roundtable event with a historic image of a girl and a dog from the 1970s in Wisconsin
Weaponizing Loneliness (May 6, 2022)

How is loneliness weaponized in practices of solitary confinement and infrastructures of incarceration? What do efforts toward its banning tell us about the rhetoric of loneliness as points of concern and control? How have individuals and communities resisted infrastructures of isolation linked to the carceral state? 

This conversation featured the following experts:

  • Stephanie Gibson PhD Candidate in Art History at the University of Pennsylvania
  • Vijay Gupta Violinist, ED of Street Symphony, MacArthur Fellow
  • Keramet Reiter Assoc. Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the School of Law at UC Irvine
  • Sarah Shourd Playwright, activist and trauma-informed journalist
Poster featuring Weaponizing Loneliness roundtable participants with historic image of Wisconsin cell block


Interactive Book Club

To expand the scope of the LNM roundtable conversations, the Interactive Book Club acted as a resource to promote discussion, collaboration, and exploration. Each edition of the Interactive Book Club included recommendations from panelists, discussion questions, and other relative resources.

Explore the Lonely No More! Interactive Book Club series below:

UWM Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge in Milwaukee that we are on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee homeland along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present.   |   To learn more, visit the Electa Quinney Institute website.