Project Description
The BLC Field School is a public humanities initiative that brings together community experts and university scholars to co-create a people’s history of Milwaukee. Each summer, our team gathers oral histories, place-based narratives, and archival materials; each spring, we collaboratively translate this research into podcasts, reports, exhibits, and performances. These materials are shared widely to foster dialogue, reflection, and deeper civic engagement. Community collaborators participate at every stage as co-creators of knowledge, ensuring that the work remains iterative, reciprocal, and grounded in lived experience. In Spring 2026, the SURF project will continue its collaboration with partners to develop vision maps and conceptual designs for the Walnut Hill Community Garden and the Lynden Hill Garden. We will also complete a multimedia piece on a community garden in Sherman Park, created in partnership with the Humanities Action Lab at Rutgers University. In addition, the Milwaukee team will host scholars and community leaders from Puerto Rico to initiate translocal conversations about the evolving role of community gardens in place-making, environmental sustainability, and neighborhood pride. Throughout the year, students will also advance their individual research projects in preparation for presentation at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research or the Urban Affairs Association conference.
Tasks and Responsibilites
This spring, the student will work closely with neighborhood residents and partner organizations to document ongoing initiatives and translate the conversations from Fall 2025 into accessible materials for community use. Responsibilities include coordinating communication among project stakeholders—including the City of Milwaukee, the Midtown Neighborhood Alliance, UW–Madison’s Department of Landscape Architecture, UWM’s Urban Studies Programs, and LandCO Inc.—to ensure consistent sharing of documents, meeting minutes, and design updates. She will also produce community-facing materials such as zines, posters, and brief reports that summarize key issues raised by residents and partners. In addition, the student will help develop a public-facing website that will house a community archive and a neighborhood history of Midtown, supporting long-term access to project information. They will also conduct independent research on community engagement and urban revitalization for her own paper, extending the arguments from a previous 2025 Urban Affairs Association conference presentation toward a potential research article.
Desired Qualifications
None Listed.