Past Projects

Bridging the Atlantic Divide through Reading and Writing
English PhD student Nmachika Nwokeabia leads East High School students in a study of African literature, with the Nigerian novel Purple Hibiscus as an example of the complex interrelation of writer with local and international audiences.

  Civil Rights Movie Project
Jeremy Holiday, Master's student in the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia, works with fifth-grade students at Thoreau Elementary School to write and film a bi-lingual English-Spanish documentary on the Civil Rights Movement. In the film, students share insights they have gained about the history of civil rights in the U.S. and about racial discrimination in their lives.

Understanding Africa
Abigail Neely, History and Geography PhD student, and Jarett Fields, History PhD student, help students at Wright Middle School gain a more complete and nuanced understanding of contemporary Africa.

Rethinking the Spanish American Short Story
Spanish and Portuguese PhD candidate Paula Di Dio works with Spanish AP classes at West High School to prepare students for college-level literary interpretation and critical writing.
 Rethinking the Spanish American Short Story website

Middle School Magazine Writing Project
English PhD student Jeanette Tran works with Wright Middle School students to analyze media and consider how their communities are represented. These efforts culminate in the creation of a student magazine reflecting students' critical reading, writing, and thinking skills.
 Middle School Magazine Writing Project website

Madison Desi Reading Group
English PhD candidate Lucienne Loh and Anthropology PhD candidate Krista Coulson bring together Madison residents of South Asian descent at monthly meetings to discuss concerns such as immigration, historical memory and the experiences of displacement through engaging with literature from the South Asian diaspora. This past October and November, the group presented "Four Conversations on South Asian Literature."

The Madison Desi Reading Group is funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council, which funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State of Wisconsin. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Beyond Sushi and Samurai
Art History PhD candidate Laura Mueller's series of workshops on cross-cultural learning through art brings new depth to West High School students' studies of Japanese culture by incorporating visits to the Chazen Museum to view 19th century Japanese prints and images. The workshops expose students to new methods of studying history and culture through the use of visual materials.

Sankofa: Hip-Hop Culture, Literacy, and Youth Empowerment Project
English PhD student Eric Pritchard uses a study of hip-hop culture to help young people of color develop skills of critical and creative writing so as to become more expressive about cultural and ethnic complexity in Madison.

Community Museum Outreach Project
Lindsey Housel, Master's student in Environment, Textiles and Design, worked with the DeForest Area Historical Society to create innovative educational programming for the Hansen-Newell-Bennett House and DeForest Public Library that encourages interactive touring and learning, especially with local elementary students.

HarrietandLeone PATRIOT Act Project
Comparative Literature PhD candidate Kerstin Schaars developed a website, HarriertandLeone.com, to encourage citizens to read and discuss the PATRIOT Act, and established a PATRIOT Act discussion group.
 HarrietandLeone.com

HEX Memoir Project
Spanish and Portuguese PhD candidate Rebecca Atencio encourages East High School ESL students to explore, along with UW-Madison undergraduate co-leaders, forms and problems of self-representation in writing. The high school students develop, revise, and polish examples of memoir writing that are published in a HEX anthology, and prepare to write college application essays.

Media Literacy Project
Cydney Alexis, Law student and English PhD candidate, and Keith Woodhouse, History PhD candidate, drew together teens in Madison's Neighborhood House to help them develop the critical thinking and writing skills needed to understand the cultural and socioeconomic impact of the media.

Planet Rap: Local Music, Global Community
In line with his research on the international role of Hip-Hop, especially in Berlin and Paris, PhD candidate in musicology Griff Rollefson organized a project and wrote a script for Madison Public Access Television, introducing both the history and the current international role of Hip-Hop music to Madison youth.

Selma is a Place
Tyina Steptoe, PhD candidate in History, collaborates with Professor Stephen Kantrowitz to bring scholarly and public accounts together to offer a deep, interpretive history of Selma, Alabama, the site of "Bloody Sunday" in March of 1965. Tyina spent several months in Selma identifying primary sources for study and working with the National Voting Rights Museum to help contextualize and interpret its collection.
  Tyina's blog

Voices from the War Zone
Dragoslav Momcilovic, PhD student in English, and Marina Antic, PhD student in Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, invite members of the Madison community at large, including student veterans and service men and women, to come together to discuss movies and books that address combat, service and life in the war zone.