Jasmine Alinder, UW-Milwaukee, and Margaret (Peggy) Rozga, UW-Waukesha
Amber Ault, UW-Madison
Angela Bauer-Dantoin, UW-Green Bay
Linda Corbin-Pardee, UW-Milwaukee
Mike Cowling and Norlisha Crawford, UW-Oshkosh
Norlisha Crawford and James Tsao, UW-Oshkosh
Richard Eckert/Diversity Committee, UW-Richland
Carol Edds, UW-Madison
Alberta Gloria and Jillian Alpire, UW-Madison
Paisley Harris, UW-Fond du Lac
Vincent Her, UW-La Crosse
Christopher Lewis and Susanne Skubal, UW-Manitowoc
Vallerie Maurice, UW Colleges/UW Extension, and Roseann Mason, UW-Parkside
Jan Miyasaki, UW-Madison
Jennifer Mueller and Felicia Saffold, UW-Milwaukee
Tina Oman/Campus Committee for Diversity and Equity, UW-Marinette
Louis Pech, UW-Marathon County
Martin Pflug and Diego Herra, UW-Superior
Lisa Poupart and Jolanda Sallman, UW-Green Bay
Julie Tharp, UW-Marshfield/Wood County
Jasmine Alinder, Department of History, UW-Milwaukee, and Margaret "Peggy" Rozga, Department of English, UW-Waukesha - "March on Milwaukee: The Struggle for Civil Rights Past and Present"
The Institute will partially fund a daylong conference, entitled "March on Milwaukee," to be held at the UW-Milwaukee Union. Forty years ago, many Milwaukee residents marched for over two hundred nights for the right to live where they wanted. Led by Vel Phillips and Father James Groppi, these activists, including the NAACP Youth Council, fought for social justice and racial equality. Despite open housing legislation and other civil rights gains, forty years later their struggle continues. The conference will be divided into two main parts: (i) the historical context of the marches including the experiences of the marchers themselves, and (ii) current policy and racial issues in Milwaukee.
Amber Ault, School of Pharmacy, UW-Madison - "Health Sciences Learning Center Seed Seminar"
This interdisciplinary health-sciences/cultural-competence seminar will be based on the curriculum of the Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) program. The project will create two individual semester-long weekly SEED Seminars for 20 graduate and professional students from across the member schools of the UW-Madison Health Sciences Learning Center: Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, and Medicine. Organized around a set of scholarly readings on race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and other forms of difference, the seminar will allow participants the opportunity to create a safe context in which to explore issues of diversity, community, and health, not only through academic study but through lived experience.
Angela Bauer-Dantoin, Human Biology and Women's Studies, UW-Green Bay - "Women of Color and Grass Roots Environmentalism"
Women of color are arguably the population most adversely affected by the ecological degradation brought about by globalization and have emerged as key leaders in grassroots environmentalist movements throughout the world. To foster an awareness of the disproportionate impact of environmental degradation on women and people of color, and to celebrate and learn from the life experiences and contributions of activists in this area, the Women's Studies Program at UW-Green Bay will sponsor the opening keynote address at the 2008 UW System Women' Studies Conference (to be hosted by UW-Green Bay). The theme of the conference is "Women and Environment: Literary, Scientific and Sociocultural Perspectives." IRE funds will be used to partially fund the keynoter's appearance.
Linda Corbin-Pardee, Union Art Gallery, UW-Milwaukee - "Implosion: Cultural Integration and Transformation"
The UW-Milwaukee Art Gallery will house an exhibit by artists Leandro Soto and Raoul Deal entitled Implosion, a multimedia installation about cultural integration and transformation. Cuban artist Soto and Milwaukee artist Deal will work with Nigerian playwright and filmmaker, Dr. Awam Amkpa, and Mexican artist, Rene Maldanado, on the concepts and creation of this exhibition. Implosion will help strengthen Milwaukee's ideas about culture and community - more specifically cultural identity - by focusing on the idea of crossing borders: artistic, national, racial, and conceptual. The exhibition will combine influences from Mexico, Cuba, Africa, India, and America.
Mike Cowling, Department of Journalism, and Norlisha Crawford, African American Studies/Department of English, UW-Oshkosh - "Forum on the Role of News Media in Poverty and Race in Urban Areas"
The rising rate of poverty is particularly evident in many metropolitan areas where problems have been triggered by the lack of progress on the urban economy. A key subject that has been mostly overlooked is the role of mass media in urban problems, especially news coverage of poverty and racial stereotypes. Grant funds are being used to sponsor the appearance of two journalists and a scholar to shed light on the subject. The forum will be open to the entire university and the public, and will be available to view on the community television access channel and on UW-Oshkosh's Department of Journalism's website.
Norlisha Crawford, African American Studies/Department of English, and James Tsao, Department of Journalism, UW-Oshkosh - "Hip Hop and the Media: Defining Masculinity"
Hip-hop helps to express frustrations with socio-political and economic disparities in U.S. society. Simultaneously, it also serves to perpetuate racist, homophobic, and sexist notions. The IRE will assist in funding a symposium that will bring a filmmaker of hip-hop culture and scholars to UW-Oshkosh to discuss these diverging aspects of hip-hop culture and masculinity in the U.S. The presenters will discuss the example of African-American artists who market hyper-aggressive and stereotypical images of black males, and the reasons why their work is so appealing for many young males in U.S. culture across race and class.
Richard Eckert/Diversity Committee, Anthropology-Sociology Department, UW-Richland - "Diversity Days 2008"
In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., UW-Richland will hold Diversity Days, a weeklong series of multicultural activities that uses the Equity Scorecard framework of access, retention, excellence and institutional receptivity. The program will consist of daily brown bag discussions, faculty presentations, student exhibits, a conference, discussion panels, ethnomusical performances, and movies as relevant to the concept of ethnosexuality. The community of Richland Center will also be invited to participate.
Carol Edds, Center on Education and Work, UW-Madison - "Establishing Multicultural Career Competency Workshop"
A careers conference, sponsored by the Center on Education and Work at UW-Madison, will be designed to serve all practitioners concerned with career development and work transitions. This annual conference will provide learning opportunities at all levels, from a basic introduction to career development to learning about the latest in innovations in career development practice. One of the latest developments in career development research and practice is the acknowledgement of the need for multicultural competence. While the literature base and standards for multicultural competence have become embedded in counseling and psychotherapy, the application to career development practitioners has emerged recently under the leadership of Lisa Flores of the University of Missouri-Columbia. Grant funds will bring Dr. Flores to UW-Madison to conduct a workshop on this subject at the 22nd annual Careers Conference.
Alberta Gloria and Jillian Alpire, Chican@ & Latin@ Studies Program, UW-Madison - "CLS Film Series"
This two-week film series will highlight five different films to students, staff, and faculty, as well as to the Madison community. The films specifically focus on issues of race, ethnicity diversity, and immigration affecting U.S. Latina/o and Chicana/o populations. Moreover, the films will provide a broad knowledge base and the intellectual tools to understand the unity and diversity of U.S. Latina/o population. Faculty from the Chican@ and Latin@ Studies Program will lead scholarly discussions following each film.
Paisley Harris, Department of History/Advisor - Multicultural Club, UW-Fond du Lac - "Nabori Salsa Concert and Dance"
The UW-Fond du Lac Multicultural Club will bring the Milwaukee-area band Nabori to campus for a salsa dance. In conjunction with the concert, the club will provide dance lessons and members of the band, many of whom are from Puerto Rico, will speak about the history of salsa music and dancing. The concert will provide outreach to the area's growing local Hispanic population and will provide a greater understanding of Hispanic culture and heritage for students, as well as for the broader community.
Vincent Her, Institute for Ethnic and Racial Studies, UW-La Crosse - "ERS Speakers Series"
UW-La Crosse's Institute on Ethnic and Racial Studies is a growing interdisciplinary academic minor in the College of Liberal Studies. Guiding its curriculum and program vision are two objectives: (i) to know and appreciate the multiracial and multicultural reality of U.S. society; and (ii) to become familiar with the history, culture and lived experiences of African Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Hispanic Americans and American Indians. One of the ways to address these goals is to provide opportunities for students, faculty and community members to come together on a regular basis to advance critical discussions on ethnic and racial issues. Grant funds will be used to launch this lecture series in the 2007-2008 academic year. The events will be free and open to the public.
Christopher Lewis and Susanne Skubal, Student Services Office, UW-Manitowoc - "UW-Manitowoc Common Reading Diversity Lecture Series"
This year the UW-Manitowoc campus (student, faculty and staff) has selected The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini as their common reading. Throughout the year the program will provide new and continuing students an opportunity to engage both in and outside of class in meaningful dialogues regarding the book. UW-Manitowoc will implement a lecture series that will not only be open to the entire campus but also to the surrounding service area, as they continually encourage the outside community to read and engage with the text and with the students. This grant will not only assist in providing an opportunity for participants to think critically about issues that they may not confront daily, but will help them experience and understand vastly different cultural norms, values and beliefs.
Vallerie Maurice, Workforce Equity and Diversity Office, UW Colleges/UW Extension, and Roseann Mason, Center for Community Partnerships, UW-Parkside - "Diversity Circles on Racism and Poverty"
Diversity Circles will be offered to sixty UW Colleges/UW-Extension employees who have participated in the Multicultural Awareness Training as a means to provide further professional development. Diversity Circles are affiliated with the national Study Circles Resource Center, an organization that offers communities an opportunity to engage in dialogue about critical social issues with the purpose of moving from dialogue to action and change. Four Diversity Circles will be offered, two on racism and two on poverty. At the conclusion of the four circles, an Action Forum will be held to develop specific plans of action to be implemented, including training facilitators to conduct Diversity Circles in communities throughout Wisconsin.
Jan Miyasaki, Asian American Studies Program, UW-Madison - "Flesh in the Free Market: Institutional Sex Trafficking, Prostitution, and Human Rights"
A two-day conference will be held featuring Anuradha Koirala, founder of Maiti Nepal, a shelter for Nepali survivors of prostitution and international trafficking. The events will include an address, "The Price of Pleasure," that focuses on the impact of prostitution on survivors, culture and society. Also, Ms. Koirala will lead a community discussion with local survivors of prostitution who are working with the Madison-based Project Respect. This discussion will be entitled "The Price of Our Children" and will focus on defining an ethic that promotes human rights, especially those of children.
Jennifer Mueller and Felicia Saffold, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, UW-Milwaukee - "Critical Conversations to Push the Equity Agenda Forward"
A monthly symposium composed of curriculum and instruction faculty will explore how to most effectively include issues of race, socio-economic status, gender and sexuality in their teacher preparation courses. An outside facilitator, Dr. Enid Lee, will meet with the group for two six-hour sessions. Local experts will facilitate the dialogue in the sessions between Dr. Lee's visits. The question guiding their work will be: "What do teacher educators do, and what do they need to do, in their work with teacher candidates to change the status quo and move to greater social justice and human possibility?"
Tina Oman/Campus Committee for Diversity and Equity, Student Services Office, UW-Marinette - " 'End of Racism' Comedy and Lecture Tour, Preacher Moss"
To initiate dialogues regarding issues of race, UW-Marinette will bring the national speaker, Preacher Moss, to campus for a performance as part of his comedy and lecture tour. According to Preacher Moss, "Understanding diversity and multiculturalism requires that we eliminate or reduce the anxiety of our ignorance and how to speak honestly when we can't." The target audience will be students, but faculty and staff, as well as community members, will be encouraged to attend. This program will also serve as an invitation to become involved in the Study Circles exercise that the Diversity and Equity Committee is in the process of implementing.
Louis Pech, Department of Biological Sciences, UW-Marathon County - "Negotiating Identity and Straddling Cultures: A Campus-Community Shared Reading Experience"
UW-Marathon County will conduct its second shared reading program, thus providing a common context supporting a larger project entitled " Journeys to American Identities" which will explore the process and consequences of establishing bicultural American identities. The texts to be read are: Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriquez, by Richard Rodriquez; Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora by Andrew Lam; and Bamboo Among the Oaks: Contemporary Writing by Hmong Americans edited by Mai Neng Moua. Participants will examine these works, focusing on inter- and intra-cultural forces that shape views of what it means to be American. This will be done through UWMC class curricula, community reading circles led by faculty at the public library, and campus activities led by the aforementioned authors, as well as writers represented in Bamboo Among the Oaks.
Martin Pflug, Department of Language and Literature, and Diego Herra (president of the student organizations SOCALA - Student Organization de Cultura Latina and CMENC - Collegiate Chapter #37 Music Educators National Conference), UW-Superior - "Quito Percussion Ensemble"
Through a collaborative effort spearheaded by SOCALA and CMENC and with additional support from the Department of Language and Literature and the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the internationally recognized Quito Percussion Ensemble from Ecuador will be brought to Superior. They will give master classes and clinics as well as class presentations on campus and in the community that will focus on the cultural and historical importance of Ecuador and Latin America as a whole. The community events will take the form of visits to area schools. All on-campus events will be free and open to the public. The classes/workshops will be in both English and Spanish as audience requirements dictate.
Lisa Poupart, First Nations Studies/Humanistic Studies, and Jolanda Sallman, Department of Social Work, UW-Green Bay - "First Nations Elder Teaching Seminar and WI Fusion"
This grant will fund an Elder Teaching Seminar for the UW-Green Bay fusion group. This group is an interdisciplinary collaboration initiated by the First Nations Studies (FNS) faculty to promote the fusing of FNS core knowledge into existing undergraduate courses. It includes faculty from FNS, social work, history, and education. By combining experiential and theoretical learning, this seminar will provide the opportunity for group participants to learn with First Nations Elder teachers in the oral tradition and in the tribal setting. The seminar will take place at Full Circle, a retreat center run by elders on the Mohican Nation reservation of Wisconsin. During the three-day seminar, faculty will engage in elder teachings and story telling from Anishinabe (Ojibwe), Mohican (Stockbridge-Munsee), and Menominee Elders from the U.S. and Canada.
Julie Tharp, Department of English, UW-Marshfield/Wood County - "Apple Pie and Enchilada: Latino Newcomers to the Marshfield Area"
UW-Marshfield/Wood County has a history of running common readings/campus themes that last throughout a school year and also involve various community groups. This year the focus will be on the new immigrant population in north Wood Co., south Clark Co., and the southern and central Marathon Co. outreach area. The book Apple Pie and Enchilada: Latino Newcomers to Rural Midwest will serve as a central text for orientation activities, first-year seminar, a learning community, lecture series, and a large variety of programming in extracurricular, service learning and study abroad activities. IRE funds will help bring the book's authors to campus for a short residency.
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