Publications
In 2021, C21 stopped to ask: what is a book? As an interdisciplinary humanities center in a public university system, we are engaging with 21st-century issues of widespread public concern more directly as they arise and foregrounding knowledge production as transparent and collaborative. This has changed our publication framework to encourage and support ongoing scholarly and community-engaged work across digital formats, and through a variety of media. Through this approach, we are sustaining, connecting, and expanding upon ideas over a longer timeframe and across multiple spaces.
We aim to complicate the two-way dynamic between academic and community-based forms of knowledge production and challenge the assumptions we might have about how ideas flow easily or linearly between the university and its neighbors. Instead, we seek to explore how knowledge production is horizontal, with concepts, systems, and embodied experiences cross-pollinating each other across varied disciplines, histories, and lived experiences.
Our horizontal publication platform includes: Digital Publications (Thinking C21, Interactive Book Club, Annual Reports); Audio / Visual media (podcasts and recorded roundtables); Exhibitions. We are currently exploring the narration and documentation of our collaborative horizontal process in print form with UW Press.
Peer review is integral to all aspect of our process. Our Advisory Council is made up of faculty, graduate fellows, and community partners who regularly complete surveys on how and what C21 is doing (programming, collaborations, research output, future planning). Our Thinking C21 digital essays are peer reviewed by UWM faculty members on the Advisory Council and/or by other UWM faculty. We offer feedback and editorial guidance for all accepted essays.
Digital Publications
We publish content digitally through our Thinking C21 website, which hosts our Digital Essays as well as our Interactive Book Club.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news, events, and commentary from Thinking C21! Our Digital Essays are updated regularly, with guest features from C21 fellows, UWM scholars, and members of the greater Milwaukee community.
To expand the scope of our roundtable conversations, the Interactive Book Club is a resource to promote discussion, collaboration, and exploration. In line with the topics of each roundtable in the Lonely No More series, we have put together a book club, complete with guest recommendations from panelists, discussion questions, and other relative resources.
Audio / Visual
We also branch out from the written word with audio and visual publications. Check out our podcasts and recorded talks below.
The Center for 21st Century Studies is proud to present 6.5 Minutes With… In this series, hosted by C21, scholars and community members briefly discuss their important contributions to discussions surrounding the most exigent issues of our current times. All episodes of 6.5 Minutes With… can be found on Apple Podcasts!
The Center for 21st Century Studies has amassed a trove of recorded conference keynotes and one-off lectures over the years. New material is being added all the time. Browse our YouTube channel for videos and recorded talks going as far back as 2012.
In 2019-2020, C21 Graduate Fellow Mallory Zinklaunched the “Inside C21” podcast, showcasing fellows and visitors of the Center.
Exhibitions
Our commitment to interdisciplinary research goes beyond the bounds of the printed and spoken word. C21 curates art exhibitions to encourage more engagement with the arts in exploring how we can address the pressing issues of our time.
Paper Publications
C21’s broad range of publications confirms its leadership in the academic community in the United States and abroad. The books in our current series with the University of Minnesota Press, and in our earlier series, 21st Century Studies and Theories of Contemporary Culture, with Indiana University Press originate from conferences sponsored by C21 or are authored by scholars affiliated with the Center.