Here you can learn about ongoing HEX projects in Madison public schools and in the community. Information is also available on completed HEX projects.
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.
Hi-Fi Voices
Jenni Veitch-Olson, PhD student in Musicology, leads East High School students on an interdisciplinary exploration of female musicians' contributions to American cultural history via the creation of a radio series for WORT 89.9 FM Madison.
HiP: History in Physics
David Meshoulam, graduate student in History of Science, aims to expand the educational and cultural role of the L.R. Ingersoll Museum of Physics located on campus by creating new exhibits connecting science to the history of Physics, especially in Wisconsin, and working directly with Madison-area schools and students.
MAAX: Madison Academic and Athletic Exchange
Through a collaboration between his English 100 class and East High School, English PhD candidate Will Rogers fosters an ongoing dialogue on the role of athletics and academics in university and national culture.
MAAX 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
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
Tangibly Assessing the Past
Afro-American Studies Master's student Crystal Moten encourages local students to think about new methods of looking at the past, using primary materials from the Wisconsin Historical Society to study black women's activism during the Civil Rights Movement.
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.
Gizhabwiiwin ('We Survive'): New Media and Anishinaabe Language Education
Matthew Hooley, PhD student in English, plans a project that records the spoken language of Anishinaabe elders while working with the Waadookodading Ojibwe language immersion school. The recorded spoken language will be made into educational tools and possibly shared with a group of students in the Madison area to educate them in Native American culture and language.
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."
Events for Madison Desi Reading Group
The Prison Writing Workshop
English graduate students Ray Hsu and Marianne Erhardt established at Oakhill Correctional Institution a creative writing community where inmates read, discuss, and publish their work. They have also established an essay-writing tutorial service that helps inmates earn their High School Equivalency Diplomas.
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.
Sankofa: Hip Hop, Gender and Youth Empowerment Project Symposium
Saturday, April 28, 2007
11:30 AM - 3:30 PM
6191 HC White Hall, UW-Madison
600 N. Park Street
Keynote: Gwendolyn Pough, Professor of Women's Studies and Writing at Syracuse University
Women, Rap and Hip Hop Feminism
2:00 PM
Team Survivor Kabaret
Julie Vogt, PhD student in Theater and Drama, rehearses and presents an original variety show with female cancer patients and survivors. The exercise and community-building program of short dances, songs, monologues, and skits are devised through structured improvisation and storytelling with the goal of bringing Julie's training in community performance and her research in American burlesque to the Team Survivor support program 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.
Four Conversations on South Asian Literature
Presented by the Madison Desi Reading Group and featured four unique discussions on books, culture, and identity, along with a viewing of a short documentary film by Kalpana Prakash, From Madison to India: In Pursuit of the Desi through Literature. The "Conversations" were held at various Madison Community Centers, and were open to the public.
Life in a Time of State Emergency. Madison Senior Center, October 25, 6:30-8:30 PM. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.
An Economic Migrant in the U.S. Downtown YWCA - Vilas Room, November 1, 6:30-8:30 PM. Transmission by Hari Kunzru.
Tradition and Conflict between Generations. Bayview Community Center, November 9, 7:00-9:00 PM. Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier.
Stories of Women's Lives. East Madison Community Center, November 29, 6:30-8:30 PM. A Spectrum of My People by Malathi Nidadavolu.
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.
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.