Sifting and Reckoning with the Public History Project

media release: Since it opened in September, “Sifting & Reckoning: UW–Madison’s History of Exclusion and Resistance,” has shed light on student stories of struggle, persistence, and resilience that permeate the university’s past and present.

At the next Wisconsin Idea Spotlight: Sifting and Reckoning with the Public History Project, the public will get a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the exhibition from the historians who brought these long-buried stories to light. The conversation will center around the project’s origins, the process of curating the exhibition, and some of the surprising discoveries made along the way. The presentation will be followed by a Q & A session.

Attendees are encouraged to visit “Sifting & Reckoning: UW Madison’s History of Exclusion and Resistance,” which is currently on display at the Chazen Museum of Art, prior to this event. The Chazen Museum of Art is located at 800 University Avenue in Madison and is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Registrants may also view the exhibition online.

About the panelists:

Taylor Bailey is a literary scholar, researcher, and curator interested in how marginalized people navigate life, seek liberation, and establish kinship. She received her bachelor’s degree in English literature with a concentration in fiction writing and African and African American studies from Washington University in Saint Louis and a master’s degree in African American studies from UW–Madison. What has intrigued Bailey most about literature and literary studies is the aspect of storytelling and the deep well of history hidden behind each word. Bailey’s work on the Public History Project has allowed her the opportunities to unite the aspects of storytelling present in literary scholarship with public history, to research lesser-told and known histories, and to impart the knowledge of historical findings to the public in intellectual yet creative ways.

Christy Clark-Pujara is a professor of history and director of graduate studies in the UW Department of African American Studies and an affiliate in the UW Department of History. She received her bachelor’s degree in history and social science from the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul and her master’s degree and doctorate in history from the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on the experiences of Black people in French and British North America in the 17th, 18th, and early-19th centuries. She is particularly interested in retrieving the hidden and unexplored histories of African Americans in areas that historians have not sufficiently examined, particularly small towns and cities in the North and Midwest. She contends that the full dimensions of the African American experience cannot be appreciated without reference to how Black people managed their lives in places where they were few. An absence of a large Black populace did not mean that ideas of Blackness were not central to the social, political, and economic development of these places.

Kacie Lucchini Butcher is an award-winning public historian whose work is dedicated to building empathy and advancing social justice. She received her master’s degree in heritage studies and public history from the University of Minnesota in 2019. She is currently the director of the UW’s Public History Project, a multiyear effort to uncover and give voice to the histories of discrimination, exclusion, and resistance on campus. The project culminated in a physical and digital exhibit, public lectures, and curricular materials that allow the Madison community to reckon with this history. Kacie was previously the cocurator of the award-winning exhibit “Owning Up: Racism and Housing in Minneapolis,” which documented the history of racial housing discrimination and its effects on the city today. She is active in the public history community — hosting events and community conversations, attending trainings, and editing publications — and is the cochair of the Membership Committee for the National Council on Public History.

About the moderator:

Jessica Arp is the managing director of communications at the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA). She is responsible for the team that produces publications and other messaging to UW alumni and friends, as well as social media and public relations. Prior to joining WFAA in 2020, she spent 15 years as an award-winning local television news reporter and assistant news director in Madison, overseeing digital and on-air storytelling. She received a bachelor’s degree from the UW School of Journalism and Mass Communications.