To encourage innovation and scholarship, CWRU’s Social Justice Institute has established a Social Justice Fellowship Program that, through grants, funds faculty and student activities that advance social justice work, from humanistic inquiry to action research.

Kimberly Stahler’s dissertation research examines social justice activism in Cleveland from 1960 to 1975, and argues that grassroots organizers and activists overcame differences in race, gender, and class in order to forge relationships with imperfect allies out of dedication to their causes.The fellowship funds will cover a research trip to Madison, Wisconsin, and the creation of a story-telling podcast series entitled “Visions of Democracy.”

Kimberly will spend two weeks in Madison, Wisconsin, sifting through the “Enacting the Movement: Performance, Alliance, and the Students for a Democratic Society in Cleveland, 1960 to 1975 archival materials. Kimberly will then make her findings available to the general public through a podcast series. Through this research and podcast series Kimberly hopes to encourage listeners to think critically about allyship and participation in democracy.

Kimberly’s work seeks to challenge the argument that identity politics prevent activists from forging alliances and encourages activists to reconsider relationships in social movements and by exposing them to creative ways that Americans have historically participated in democracy.

Read more about the fellowship here. Congratulations, Kimba!