Siftings
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The University of Wisconsin and Japanese American Students, 1941–44
When Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, they did more than provoke the United States to enter WWII. They also triggered an era of uncertainty and hardship for Japanese in…
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Gay Purge: The Persecution of Homosexual Students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1962–1963
In 1962, the University of Wisconsin began its second “gay purge” to systematically seek out and expel homosexual male students. Undergraduate and graduate students suspected of engaging in same-sex relationships were brought…
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The Hammersley Method: The History of Mistrust between the UW–Madison Community and the UW–Madison Police Department
The first iteration of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Police Department (UWPD) was markedly different from what we now know as campus police. The UWPD was created during the 1930s with a primary…
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“A National Problem”: Badger Athletics and the Fight Against Segregation
The 2020 college football season may be the oddest on record. Postponed and canceled games have defined the season as, each week, teams have shut down in accordance with COVID-19 isolation protocols,…
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“Successful Beyond Expectation:” Blackface, Minstrelsy, and Racist Entertainment at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
In 1909, students dressed in blackface and minstrel costume paraded through the streets of Madison on their way to UW’s campus. They stopped outside of university President Van Hise’s home so he…
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Surviving Conditions and Competing Visions: The Fight for a Chicano Studies Department
Since the late 1960s, Chicanx activists, academics, and students have been fighting for the legitimacy of Chicano Studies as a discipline with a rightful place as a department at the University of…
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Public History Project Annual Report
Since its launch in August of 2019, the UW–Madison Public History Project and its researchers have worked tirelessly to uncover and give voice to the histories of discrimination and resistance on campus.…
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Are Black Women Safe at the University of Wisconsin–Madison?
In the spring of 1988, a Black female UW–Madison athlete was violently attacked. While authorities denied it was a racially motivated attack, students, faculty and community leaders argued otherwise. But this was…
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The Rise and Fall of “Ethnic Centers” at UW–Madison (1968–1974)
In October of 1968, an Afro-American and Race Relations Center opened at 929 University Avenue. Its mission was to “encourage Afro-American studies,” a new field at the time, and to sponsor events,…
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The Wisconsin Alumni Magazine and Progressive Era Campus Culture
Founded in 1899 and continuing publication today under the title On Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Alumni Magazine sprung from a desire to keep former students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison appraised of campus…
The Center for Campus History’s digital publication of research and writing
Siftings is an ongoing collection of original historical research, writing and multimedia from the center’s staff, students, and members of the campus community.
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