Community Conversations are facilitated conversations around a theme, topic, or story that allow communities to discuss timely topics and work toward community response or action. In this Public Works Seminar, we will discuss how and why you might choose to host community conversations to inform community-engaged research or provide direction for action in communities you collaborate with. You will walk away with an understanding of how to plan and facilitate a community conversation and how to turn what you hear there into action.
Space is limited and registration is required. To join, please send an email to weindling@wisc.edu with your name and affiliation. Light refreshments will be provided.
Join Chrissy Widmayer, Director of Community Powered at Wisconsin Humanities and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures, to learn about this method and others to guide your next community-centered project.
Chrissy Widmayer is a scholar of community connections. She has a PhD in Folklore Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University. She is the Director of the award-winning Community Powered initiative at Wisconsin Humanities and a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures at UW-Madison. Her postdoctoral research builds on the work she’s with Community Powered, which puts the tools of history, culture, and storytelling in the hands of communities through training and educational programming. Her work at CSUMC will expand Community Powered into various Nordic American communities in the Upper Midwest to help them build capacity to collect their own folklore and produce dynamic public programming around those traditions. Chrissy is also a co-founder of WiseFolk Productions and content creator for Folkwise.