Research in Action

An interdisciplinary, multiracial research team, UAM seeks to document, map, and analyze street art responding to moments of friction and crisis. We believe that street art represents important vernacular expression, voices in public space that are often silenced or marginalized.

In collaboration with community members around the world we are collecting and archiving street art that deals with systemic racism, the COVID-19 pandemic, environmental challenges, and gentrification. Our goal is to arrive at a nuanced understanding of the relationship between street art and place, considering how art shapes and is shaped by unique neighborhoods and the people who inhabit them.

The College of Arts and Sciences is a national network partner of Ready to Run®, a non-partisan campaign training program committed to electing more women to elective office.

Research shows that women make government more transparent, inclusive and accessible. Women bring different priorities and experiences to public life, including perspectives that have been largely absent in public policymaking. Women change the way government works, and their voices are needed around the country.

Walking Together seeks to increase the visibility of student research on immigration topics by amplifying academic and community collaborations on migration that align with St. Thomas’ convictions of dignity, respect, and diversity.

The Walking Together mission is to come together to better understand migration, to celebrate immigrant communities contributions and to advocate for anti-bias perspectives on migration, immigration, and displacement.

In partnership with the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Community (MMDTC), CAS researchers are conducting interviews with Dakota elders, leaders, members, and associates to collect stories of leadership amid historical and contemporary displacement, erasure, resistance, and survivance to support federal recognition of the tribe and to develop a leadership narrative of the MMDTC.

All stories, intellectual property, and proceeds go to the MMDTC in recognition of - and partial correction to - the typically extractive nature of research with Indigenous communities

In partnership with the Lower Phalen Creek Project, a native-led environmental nonprofit on St. Paul's East Side with the mission of protecting and restoring sites that are sacred to the Dakota people, we are documenting soil and water contamination at the Wakáŋ Tipi ("Dwelling place of the sacred" in the Dakota language) cave below the St. Paul bluffs.

This work will serve as a baseline for understanding the effects of future restoration, educational and outreach initiatives.