The Lands We Share
Exhibit finds ties that connect cultures in th
James Levy is no stranger to discussions about race — he teaches several classes about race and ethnicity at UW-Whitewater as an associate professor history. But he’s found that many of his students are uncomfortable with contributing to class discussions surrounding those topics. A fellow faculty member at UW-Whitewater mentioned that most students at the university are somehow connected to farms, either having grown up on one or having parents who did. That, Levy thought, could be a way in. “The more I thought about race and learned more about farming in the state, the more I thought this could be an interesting way to get students to talk about race from the side door,” said Levy. With the help of four other public historians in the UW System, he created the Wisconsin Farms Oral History Project, where students became researchers and interviewers to learn more about farming history. The oral history project started six years ago, and The Lands We Share exhibit is the culmination of that work. “If you put together race, farming and state history, that’s our project,” Levy said. The exhibit has been touring Wisconsin since October. After finishing a placement at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society, the exhibit moved to the Golda Meir Library at UWM in March. The exhibit is traveling to the cities of the four UW System
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universities involved (UW-Whitewater, UW-Oshkosh, UWMilwaukee and UW-Madison). Levy contacted other public historians throughout the UW System to see if they wanted to get involved. Jasmine Alinder, associate professor of history and associate dean of the College of Letters & Science at UWM, said yes, as did Steven Kercher, the chair of the history program at UW-Oshkosh, and Troy Reeves, the head of the oral history program at UW-Madison. “James was instrumental at reaching out across the system,” Alinder said. “To his credit, that’s an unusual thing to do. There are not many cross-campus projects. At UWM, we were also fortunate to get support from the Office of Undergraduate Research.” Together the four public historians have used the program at their respective campuses through boot camps, undergraduate researchers and teaching classes. There were summer boot camps at UW-Oshkosh, UWMilwaukee, UW-Madison and UW-Whitewater, where the mostly undergraduate students learned the best ways to interview people. “They were like training sessions for them to understand and learn how to use oral history,” Alinder said. The students found there was a long history of farming in Wisconsin that has included many races and ethnicities, from the Oneida Nation to German and Hmong immigrants. Local food, local farms, local connections While the museum display teaches about farming history, there is another important part of the exhibit: farmto-table conversation dinners. “Many exhibitions serve as ends in themselves – destinations to be
