As a postdoctoral research center, the Center for 21st Century Studies has several initiatives that foster interdisciplinary research in the humanities.

Fellowships
Through a yearly competition, the Center constitutes a group of six to eight UWM faculty, plus two external faculty, whose research relates to the Center’s biannual research theme. Fellowships are awarded to support research projects in the humanities, which include, but are not limited to, philosophy, history, literature, religious studies, and art history.

Publications
The Center's broad range of publications confirms its leadership in the academic community in the U.S. and abroad. The books in the Center's series 21st Century Studies (formerly Theories of Contemporary Culture) with Indiana University Press are site specific; they are authored by scholars affiliated with the Center or originate from conferences sponsored by the Center. The Center also publishes a series on online Working Papers for faculty and an online Occasional Papers series for graduate students.

In the electronic media, undergraduate students write about Center events through our blog, we post videos of select speakers on our YouTube channel, and we are known to condense difficult concepts into 140-character transmissions via our Twitter account, @center21.

Workshops
Research Workshops bring together faculty, staff, and independent scholars from UWM and other local institutions to discuss common interests across disciplinary lines. Workshops are open to UWM faculty and academic staff, and to researchers in the field from outside UWM.

Themes
Every two years the Center designates a theme that lends itself to multidisciplinary study as the subject for its research. Around this theme we present a full program of public lectures, seminars, symposia, and conferences.

Curricular Projects
The Center for 21st Century Studies seeks to promote graduate student involvement with its activities, promote faculty-student interaction, and help graduate students in their careers through its curricular projects. With the help of department liaisons for our Curricular Project, we seek to identify graduate students interested in meeting Center visitors for a formal conversation/interview in the context of the visit. The student will then use his/her notes, combine these with other materials (e.g., his/her familiarity with the speaker's work), and write a short paper that the Center may, at its discretion, publish on its website.