Public Humanities Exchange
In 2005, the Center for the Humanities began supporting a select number of graduate student projects, convened outside the boundaries of academia. Each one features a collaboration with a community partner. The Public Humanities Exchange (HEX) goes beyond volunteerism and the pure research model, to offer graduate students and partners the chance to form mutually rewarding relationships with surprising outcomes. HEX integrates a number of programs into one: it is a dynamic outreach, community-based research, public humanities, service learning, and granting program. Each HEX project acts as an eclectic mini-nonprofit, building a partnership with a community group that reflects both their existing needs and the graduate student's expertise.
Outcomes
Since 2005, the Public Humanities Exchange Program has worked with over 60 community partners and 12 Madison public schools, serving countless Wisconsin residents. Graduate students from 27 humanities departments and related disciplines have learned how to collaborate with community partners, creating meaningful projects that address a need and draw on the student's interests and expertise. The ongoing Russian Literature program at Oakhill Correctional Institution began as a HEX project, and murals painted by Centro Hispano's teenage members that remain a source of community pride on Madison's South Side are but two examples of the program's ongoing impact.
Focus Areas
Project Leader
Sara Guyer
Director, Center for the Humanities
- Department/Unit
- Center for the Humanities
- School or College
- College of Letters & Science