Thursday, October 12

V4-01 Wisconsin Humanities’ Community Powered Initiative: Building Community from the Grassroots


Thursday, October 12, 8:00 am–10:00 am

session will be recorded and available for later viewing online


Chair: Christine J. Widmayer (Wisconsin Humanities)

8:00 am
Insider/Outsider: Using Public Folklore to Build a Sense of Belonging in Appleton, WI
Rachel Steiner (Wisconsin Humanities)

8:15 am
Making Visible The Invisible: Reshaping Community Interactions through Online Spaces
Anthony Cattani (Wisconsin Humanities)

8:30 am
Forest County Potawatomi Lacrosse Revitalization Project
Sapatis H. Menomin (Wisconsin Humanities)

8:45 am
Small Town, Big Impact: Inspiring Connection and Community Investment in Rural Wisconsin
Emily Riewestahl (Wisconsin Humanities)

9:00 am
Can the Humanities enact grassroots change?
Arijit H. Sen (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee)

9:15 am
optional discussion time

Wisconsin Humanities recently launched a new initiative, Community Powered, which deploys humanities tools in Wisconsin communities to inspire and energize community-driven projects. In 2022, Wisconsin Humanities hired four project coordinators, trained them in humanities methods, and sent them home to identify community stories, challenges, and needs, and collaborate with local partners on projects to tell those stories and meet those needs. This panel explores the results from the pilot year: each coordinator will present on their projects, discussing how their use of story circles, digital spaces, cultural revitalization, or history-based programming, created meaningful community connections through grassroots engagement.