Upcoming Training Sessions
The Wisconsin Humanities Fellows program seeks individuals to participate in our 2025 Community Powered training. For this year-long session, we’re looking for Wisconsinites who want to strengthen democracy in their communities. We don’t mean people who want to get out the vote or people who want to run for office–we mean people who want to strengthen community ties–especially with other Wisconsinites who have different life experiences, beliefs, or identities–to build bridges across difference and bring people together around their shared values and vision for their communities.
Through our Community Powered training in the Wisconsin Humanities Fellows program, we teach Fellows how to mobilize their creativity and their passion into action, by training them to use the tools of history, culture, and storytelling, to recognize community strengths, tell community stories, and work together toward a vibrant future.
For the 2025 year-long session, 8 Wisconsin Humanities Fellows will participate in:
- Six months of training in documenting local history, telling community stories, and activating community members in local projects.
- Six months of personal mentoring while putting their training to work in their communities, kickstarting projects that will strengthen community connections and heal local divisions
Wisconsin Humanities Fellows will receive:
- Certification from Wisconsin Humanities that recognizes their training and expertise.
- Mentorship from Wisconsin Humanities staff.
- Access to Wisconsin Humanities’ network of public humanities practitioners around the state.
- A $2,500 stipend for participation and additional funding support for Fellows’ community project(s).
The Details
Who is invited to apply to become a Wisconsin Humanities Fellow?
The Wisconsin Humanities Community Powered program values and builds upon the diversity of knowledge and experience in communities around Wisconsin. Your drive to engage deeply with your community means more to us than your educational background or professional experience.
Consider applying if you are:
- An individual working with heritage and culture
- A member of a cultural or civic organization (e.g. museums, arts councils, neighborhood associations, or places of worship)
- An educator, librarian, or archivist
- An artist, actor, or storyteller
- A community change agent
- Anyone with a deep interest in building community
This session has no regional geographic limit–Fellows can come from anywhere in the state of Wisconsin!on’s focus when we release our new call for applicants.
Unfortunately, we cannot accept applicants who are faculty at an institution of higher education (including the Universities of Wisconsin). We DO, however, accept applicants from K-12 teachers.
What do Wisconsin Humanities Fellows learn?
Fellows will be trained in our Community Powered process, which ensures that projects address pressing community needs in ways that will be most useful to individual communities. The training includes multiple training sessions on Zoom each month. Our training workshops give you tools that you can use to design a meaningful project.
Workshops cover topics including (but not limited to):
- Documentation techniques like oral history or ethnographic interviewing, history harvests, short-form interviewing, and photography.
- Place-based approaches like asset mapping, community-led walks, story mapping, place-making, and cultural resource management.
- Storytelling events like community conversations and story circles.
- And project development like project management, budgeting, grant writing, ways to share about your project, and evaluation.
Our training gives participants a menu of options from our toolkit. Each training session will be customized to the needs of the participants. To see the full list of potential workshops, click here.
What is expected of participants?
The workshops consist of at least 36 hours of formal training. We expect participants to spend time outside of the workshops putting what they’ve learned into practice. There will be opportunities for optional sessions with fellow trainees and ongoing one-on-one mentorship from Wisconsin Humanities staff.
Anticipated schedule for the 2025 training:
- Application submitted November 11, 2024
- Interviews conducted in December 2024
- Selections announced in January 2025
- Orientation in January 2025
- Training Workshops (at least 6 hours a month on Zoom) from February-July 2025
At the end of the first six months, we ask WH Fellows to propose a project to complete in the remaining six months (August-January). Our training prepares you to feel confident proposing projects such as:
- A series of community story circles
- An oral history project
- A community garden
- An asset map or story map
- Walking tours of local significant sites
- And so much more!
How do I apply?
Please apply using the Google Form here by November 11, 2024. If you would prefer to submit your responses orally, please arrange a phone call with Chrissy Widmayer by emailing her at chrissy.widmayer@wisconsinhumanities.org or by calling her at (608) 265-1052.
Application Questions include the following:
- Name (first and last)
- Pronouns (optional)
- Email Address
- Phone Number
- City or Town & County
- How are you involved in your community? Include any work, volunteer, or other connections, projects, or activities.
- Why do you want to participate in the WH Fellows program? Why do you feel like you need our training/toolkit?
- What are one or two challenges, broad or specific, that you’re interested in tackling in your community?
- What are some of the strengths in your community that you would hope to build on?
- What impacts would you want your work with the WH Fellows program to have on your community?
Once we have closed the application, we will select a round of semifinalists with whom we will conduct individual interviews to hear more about their interest in the program. After the interviews, we will select our eight Wisconsin Humanities Fellows and be in further contact about how to accept the position.
