Hello from the Center for Campus History! We hope everyone is enjoying the dwindling days of summer and getting excited for the new school year! For August’s edition of the newsletter we have events and news to look forward to this semester, center research, archival updates, new book recommendations and more!

The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Rebecca M. Blank Center For Campus History is an ongoing university effort to uncover and give voice to those who experienced, challenged, and overcame prejudice on campus. As always, if you have a story to share, an event you think should be researched, or a person you think has been overlooked, please email us at centerforcampushistory@wisc.edu.  

We took July off from the newsletter, so we’re a bit late in sharing the news, but we’re thrilled to congratulate former Center research assistant Chong Moua on defending her dissertation and graduating with her PhD from UW–Madison’s Department of History! 

Chong made huge contributions to the Center’s work over the years, including valuable research for the Sifting & Reckoning exhibition. You can check out an oral history article Chong wrote for our online publication here, featuring interviews with Hmong American alumni sharing their experiences at UW-Madison.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the Center’s work has to be archive time. There is so much fascinating, insightful and sometimes very strange stuff to be found in the University Archives collections. 

We’ve had the chance to put in a fair amount of archive time this summer doing research for the Center’s next exhibition, and we can’t wait to share some of the cool things we’ve come across!

This time of year can be a mixed bag — some ennui that summer is somehow already over, along with excitement for the new school year. To help smooth out that transition, we have some events to share to get you in the swing of the new semester!

Interested in the Multicultural Student Center? Swing by the MCR Lounge in the Red Gym for their First Day of School Drop In. Wednesday, September 4, 2024 from Noon - 3 p.m.

And the next day, get a treat and learn about LGBTQ+ student organizations and campus offices at the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center Ice Cream Social & Resource Fair.

Thursday, September 5, 2024, 4 p.m. - 7 p.m. in the Memorial Union Great Hall.

We get asked a lot of questions about UW history. Each month we’ll answer one in the newsletter. 

This month: It’s that time of year again. Has move-in day always been so hectic at UW?

The answer: That’s kind of a tough one. We don’t have much material describing move-in day specifically. But we do have archival pictures from eras past showing students getting settled on campus. So even if you can’t get a definitive read on the relative hecticness of move-in days, you can enjoy the different styles and vibes.

Each month, we like to share one of the many (many… many… ) books that have helped the Center’s research. But this month we’re cheating just a bit by recommending a book that happens to be on the whole campus community’s reading list for the fall. 

This year’s Go Big Read selection is Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by writer, educator and disability activist Rebekah Taussig. 

In a memoir told in essays, Taussig writes about the rhythms and textures of what it means to live in a body that doesn’t fit, reflecting on everything from the complications of kindness and charity, living both independently and dependently, experiencing intimacy, and how the pervasiveness of ableism in our everyday media directly translates to everyday life.

You can read more about the Go Big Read program and events here. 

And since doing research and adding context is kind of our thing here at the CCH, we’re super excited to share that we have a new teaching guide available that compliments this year’s Go Big Read book by exploring the history of disability at UW–Madison. 

Compiled by the Center’s Curricular Program Manager Daniel Berman, the guide features a diverse collection of primary sources that explore the experiences of UW–Madison community members with disabilities and attempts to make the university more inclusive.

Whether you’re an instructor or just interested in learning more, you can check it out here. 

Usually Center Director Kacie Lucchini Butcher uses this space to share a book, podcast, movie, quote, or something else that has been adding to the CCH. But this month Center Communications Manager is pinch hitting. 

So From the Desk of KLB JKW, August marks the 65th anniversary of maybe the most iconic jazz album ever recorded: Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue. The record stands out for being both musically groundbreaking – ushering in the height of cool jazz –  and also incredibly accessible, even for those who don’t consider themselves jazz people. In fact, it’s so iconic that most folks would probably recognize Davis’s melodic trumpet strains, even if they didn’t know it by name. But whether you’ve heard the album 500 times or just in passing, it’s always a good time to put it on.