Throughout its history, C21’s mission has focused on building a community of scholars to address the pressing issues of the time. Today, C21 works to bridge university and community scholars in this effort, with arts and humanities methodologies anchoring the projects coming out of these collaborations.

To do this effectively, C21 created a model to bring intentionality to the design, planning, and execution of what the Center calls the “Collaborative Knowledge Creation (CKC)” process. Community and university stakeholders take part in every step of it, which informs the creation of accessible programming that provides multiple points of access and honors multiple ways of knowing.

Illustration showing C21's Collaborative Research Model. In a central, yellow, circle is the text: Fostering the equitable co-creation of knowledge through Fellowships, Collaboratory Projects, Story Experience Program, UWM Humanities Alliance. Around the larger circle in the center is a map of other circles with arrows guiding the viewer through the process. Begins with: engage stakeholders, then identify themes, followed by hold program retreats, then offer accessible programming (with extensions including curricular resources, horizontal roundtables, and short form audio), followed by conduct participatory research, and finally publishing and disseminating research, which circles right back to engage stakeholders.