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C21 believes that the complex challenges we face in the 21st century are best met through collaborations across areas of expertise and experience, and that the humanities are a vital part of addressing these challenges.  

Collaboratory funding is an opportunity to bring together teams of scholars across disciplines, across university and community partnerships, and across emerging and established scholars (students / staff / faculty) to inspire the generation of new ideas.  


Current Collaboratories

AI and the Humanities

The AI and the Humanities Collaboratory will consider one of the most pressing questions for higher education: what is the future of humanities in the context of AI?

Slow Growing in the Time of Trees

The Slow Growing in the Time of Trees Collaboratory will cultivate an interdisciplinary creative space that examines the long duration of tree-time in the face of human and non-human interventions.

Worlds Languages and Cultures

World Languages and Cultures aims to promote language learning and internationally-focused education at UWM.

Current Working Groups

Across the Premodern World: The Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies Consortium

Across the Premodern World aims to increase awareness of the extraordinary resources offered by the Newberry Library’s Center for Renaissance Studies (CRS) Consortium.

Center for Nursing History Development

The Center for Nursing History working group seeks to bring new attention to one of UWM’s hidden gems: the historical galleries and collections of the Center for Nursing History.

Critical Asian Humanities Reading Group

The Critical Asian Humanities Reading Group offers scholars from a wide swath of disciplines and departments a forum in which to focus on recent scholarship concerning Asia. 

Digital Cultures

The Digital Cultures Collaboratory supports research into digital and analog games and other forms of online culture, by graduate students, staff, faculty, and alumni. 

MIGC (Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference)

The MIGC Working Group organizes the Midwest Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference—an annual graduate conference organized by graduate students that supports the sharing and collaboration of national and international graduate student research and art across disciplines.

Muslim Milwaukee Project: Palestinian American Stories

The Muslim Milwaukee Project aims to further understanding of the Muslim communities in the Milwaukee area, to challenge anti-Muslim racism, and to build networks among community members who share these goals.

Reproductive Justice

Reproductive Justice aims to create a space where researchers at UWM and reproductive justice community advocates in Milwaukee can work together to address systemic injustices.

Science and Technology Studies (STS)

This working group will explore a range of Science and Technology Studies perspectives on the development and consequences of science and technology in their historical, cultural, and social contexts. 

Slow Fashion Sewing Circle

The Slow Fashion Sewing Circle is bringing together people who make, repair, and think about these fabric and fashion practices in broader cultural contexts.