Fifth annual Cincinnati Project Symposium slated for March 1

This year’s theme: Women of Color in Cincinnati

By: Noelle Zielinksi

The Cincinnati Project will host its fifth annual symposium from 9 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., Friday, March 1. This year, the symposium’s theme is Women of Color in Cincinnati and will take place in the University of Cincinnati’s African American Cultural and Research Center located at 60 West Charlton St.

Sponsored by UC's McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, The Cincinnati Project (TCP) was designed to expand knowledge of the social dynamics of urban places through research projects. Its goal is to connect college faculty with organizations that serve marginalized people and communities to bring about positive change.

Since fully launching in January of 2016, TCP has grown to include nearly 400 A&S faculty and students, and more than 30 community organizations.

This year’s symposium will include these keynote speakers:

Arykah Carter (she, her, hers) is a trans woman of color living in Cincinnati and a board member for TransOhio.org, a statewide advocacy and education organization. Carter is currently working on composing a Trans and Queer People of Color Collective (TQPCC) in Cincinnati.

Mona Jenkins is one of the leaders of Mass Action for Black Liberation (formerly Blacks Lives Matter Cincinnati) and the Director of Development & Operations for the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. As an educator and researcher who graduated from UC, she actively works with community members to address neighborhood specific issues related to health, gender, housing, and education. In collaborating with leaders and individuals who reside in the neighborhoods, Jenkins seeks to build engagement, empowerment, and community-sustainable solutions.

In addition to the keynote presentations, the symposium will include student and faculty presentations of their community-partnered projects, a panel on scholar activism and objectivity, and a discussion of the process from research idea to policy change.

Register today at thecincyproject.org/symposium

Related Stories

1

UC professor leads film students to the future

April 6, 2026

As a kid, at the age of 10, Marty Schiff’s dad gave him a Kodak Brownie movie camera, and that led to a lifetime of creating stories on film. He spent his summers with that camera, making eight-millimeter movies, with a camera that taught him how to thread a projector, change the film in a closet, and tell stories with the medium he loved. “I always wanted to go to Hollywood,” Schiff says. So later he did, with $200 in his pocket, and began a career that has spanned acting, directing, producing—pretty much everything with the exception of costumes (“I’m not really good with a sewing machine,” he says).

3

On track: Hoffman Honors Scholar studies public transit

April 2, 2026

Public transit is where Zane Sawyer’s lifelong passion for travel meets his commitment to making an impact. The University of Cincinnati first-year geography major in the College of Arts & Sciences and member of the second cohort of Hoffman Honors Scholars (HHS) has hit the ground running, designing a research project intended to capture both how public transit works and how its users perceive it.