The Action Collaborative: A Home for the College of Arts and Sciences Centers and Institutes

Imagine walking down the bustling streets of Madrid. Spanish is being spoken all around you – you say "buenos días” to a shopkeeper. Now imagine you can do this without ever leaving your classroom. The opportunity to meaningfully experience another culture can have a lasting impact on students, positioning them to become leaders and innovators in their communities. 

The Curricular Enhancement, Development, Access, and Research Language Resource Center (CEDAR LRC) focuses on creating and assessing the impact of language curriculum materials that create transformative experiences for learners and educators alike. Its four focal areas are virtual reality (VR) for curricular design, the development of linguistically and culturally inclusive materials, community and institutional partnerships, and theory-to-practice research. 

Since its founding in 2022 CEDAR has developed more than 40 open access virtual reality experiences in both Spanish and Arabic. Each year, we provide over 1,000 professional development hours for language educators and host multiple nationally recognized scholars. We have created three open access language textbooks. We are actively investigating the integration of large language models, automatic speech recognition, and AI tools into language education. CEDAR is an interdisciplinary language resource hub, committed to developing cutting edge tools to equip students at UC, throughout the tri-state area, and across the country with the cultural competency necessary to lead in a globalized world.

Cyberspace is vital for our future. Cyberspace is vulnerable to exploitation. The Center for Cyber Strategy and Policy (CCSP) at UC works to ensure that cyberspace’s vitality is not overwhelmed by its vulnerability. 

CCSP has developed the core research that has helped shift US cyber strategy and those of allied countries to a proactive persistent cyber posture. We are the leading global research center on the theory of cyber persistence and its translation into cyber operations and campaigns. 

 CCSP’s support work has made impacts in the battlespace of the Russian-Ukraine War, while supporting the application of cyber persistence beyond national strategies around the world to include new models of cyber exercises and new training environments here at home for local governments across the state of Ohio. We are currently supporting the training of tens of thousands of public employees across the state, with our number growing every day. The Center for Cyber Strategy and Policy is leading the way in securing vital local, national, and global digital infrastructure from threats via persistent and proactive engagement.

The UC Center for Public Engagement with Science (PEWS) expands and enriches the interface between science and the public to benefit all stakeholders. In an era when scientific literacy directly impacts community health, environmental sustainability, and informed civic participation, PEWS bridges the critical gap between scientific research and public priorities, transforming how science connects with society.  

PEWS programs and initiatives extend across campus and into the community, with more than 30 faculty and staff affiliates across 8 different UC colleges and partners including Cincinnati Public Schools, FC Cincinnati, and many other community organizations andindustry leaders. PEWS enriches science exploration in elementary school curricula. It gives members of the public from farmers’ market visitors to elder communities hands-on experiences with science. It aids industry partners in pursuing sustainability goals and communicating relevant science to the public. The UC Center for Public Engagement with Science is a movement to ensure that scientific knowledge serves all members of our community, fostering understanding, trust, and collaboration between researchers and residents.

80% of the U.S. population and over 50% of the global population live in cities. The Center for the City maximizes the resources in UC’s Department of History and School of Planning to build public-facing projects to engage with the history and future of urban space, in Cincinnati and beyond. We use UC’s place as an urban university as the launching pad for thinking and learning about cities. 

UC’s Center for the City supports a coalition of partners from around the university and the larger city to explore the history of the University of Cincinnati, local neighborhoods such as Avondale, and more, helping create meaningful monuments and other story-telling tools to preserve this history. It develops resources and sponsors opportunities to collectively reflect on neglected or under-appreciated aspects of our history. At the Center for the City, we use the past to engage the present to achieve a better future in Cincinnati and beyond.

There is a deep hunger and brokenness within many communities in Cincinnati that extends beyond physical poverty. Healing this societal brokenness takes courageous leadership and unconventional forms of partnership. The UC Center for Truth, Community Healing, and Transformation, bridges the gap between UC and community members in some of the most socially and economically marginalized neighborhoods in the city where institutional mistrust runs deep.  

We amplify community voices and challenge systems of oppression and injustice by supporting collective organizing and advocacy efforts among our community partners.  We address community healing as a complex and collective responsibility that begins with a confrontation of the pride and individualism within each of us that sustains social inequity and keeps us from recognizing our common humanity.

At the Center for Truth, Community Healing and Transformation, our students and faculty collaborators support capacity building among grassroot community organizations that are filling critical public service gaps.  Through our newsletter we provide critical analysis of current events and local government decisions in a way that is accessible to all. We foster service-learning opportunities for students to gain real-world experiences within community organizations and research projects where they can learn on-the-job every day.  Through our “Meet Me at the Garden” events we break down walls of social division through relationship building and the healing power of green spaces.  And we partner with faculty researchers whose research is forging new local partnerships. At the Center for Truth, Community Healing and Transformation, we aim to interrupt the cyclical forces of corruption, animosity, and violence which collectively reinforce uneven urban development, exacerbate disparate life-course outcomes, and create social instability.

The Charles Phelps Taft Research Center is an intellectually vibrant and nourishing hub for interdisciplinary conversations and collaborations that demonstrate the importance of the humanities and humanistic social sciences in understanding and positively reshaping our world. We offer a range of university and public humanities programs that bring people together. We provide fellowships and awards to faculty and students conducting original research as well as to our 15 member units to enrich their students' experiences.  

Our theme for the 2025–26 academic year is Period. Through lectures and workshops we will explore how humanities and social science scholars punctuate time, history, and our ideas for audiences within and beyond the academy. What is the point of humanities and social science research? What do we include and what do we leave out in our work and writing? In exploring both the public-facing and backstage of humanistic inquiry, we will examine how the humanities and social sciences connect us to the fleshy rhythms of life.

The Institute for Research in Sensing (IRiS) is an interdisciplinary research institute focused on novel routes to innovation in sensing research and sensor technology development through purposeful integration of STEM and non-STEM perspectives, including basic and applied research, medicine, engineering, the humanities, social sciences, and fine and performing arts. At IRiS, we seek not only to expand what is possible, but also to ask what is good, for human thriving and the health of our planet. 

IRiS does this with a variety of programmatic offerings that seek to bring together all stakeholders in this vital mission. IRiS Ignite is a biennial conference that re-imagines the traditional academic conference to forge novel connections on the broad topic of sensing through an integrated program that places scientific research alongside scholarship in the humanities, and artistic performances alongside work in the social sciences. The IRiS Graduate Research Fellowship Program, offered to 16 graduate students from across the university each year, connects fellows in interdisciplinary teamwork in collaboration with external partners to solve future-oriented challenges and training needs. IRiS also coordinates the Alloy Discussion Series, a unique public-facing conversation format designed to foster curiosity on cutting edge topics in sensing and set in unusual locations around the city, IRiS Field Trips which lead groups through sense-based explorations of new and familiar places, and Espresso & Sensing, a monthly colloquium featuring the latest in sensing research from across campus. IRiS is on a mission of connection, integration, and holism as we pursue breakthroughs in sensing research at the University of Cincinnati and beyond. 

Cincinnati is one of the fastest-growing film production hubs in North America. The Niehoff Center is the only institution in the region that unites film studies, creative practice, and community and industry partnerships. It is where UC students, faculty, and the community come together to shape the future of film and media culture in Cincinnati and beyond. The Center is designed to transcend individual programs and colleges, effectively uniting students, faculty, and resources in film studies and film production across UC and the greater Cincinnati region. The Niehoff Center is committed to training local talent, fostering critical dialogue, and building the intellectual infrastructure that turns potentially transient production into lasting culture.

To do this, The Niehoff Center sponsors over 50 screenings, lectures, and workshops each year, reaching thousands on campus and across the city. We have created strong, lasting relationships with key cultural institutions, including Film Cincinnati, Cindependent Film Festival, OTR Film Festival, FotoFocus, Cincinnati Art Museum, Academy of Cinematic Arts, and Contemporary Arts Center. Niehoff Professors have produced globally recognized books, films, and exhibitions, while our students are interning and training with top regional festivals and production companies. The Niehoff Center for Film and Media Studies is where UC students, faculty, and the community come together to shape the future of film and media culture in Cincinnati and beyond.

The Portman Center’s mission is to encourage civility, bipartisanship and finding common ground to achieve policy solutions. This includes the promotion and development of future public servants from across the political spectrum who are committed to civility, open and inclusive dialogue, and bipartisan engagement. The Center aims to inspire students, faculty and community partners to grow as citizen-leaders who advance the public good, and through its mission, also intends to influence the national political climate at a time of growing partisanship and incivility.

Through initiatives such as mentoring student fellows, providing tangible opportunities to craft policy solutions, and supporting student public policy internship placement and stipends, the Portman Center helps prepare the next generation of civic leaders. It builds civility in our communities by hosting informed public conversations and facilitating civil discourse workshops. It is home to cutting-edge public policy research and elevates bipartisan problem solvers in programs including its annual policy symposium. The Portman Center is meeting the moment: inspiring public servants and civic leaders, finding enduring solutions, and demonstrating the way democracy can work.

The UC Field Center connects students, scientists, and community groups to identify, document, monitor, and restore environmental quality throughout the Greater Cincinnati and Hamilton County Area. Our faculty and students work with community partners to gather and analyze environmental and biodiversity data, highlighting persistent and emerging concerns, and leveraging state-of-the-discipline research to propose affordable solutions. The Center also provides education and enrichment for local students and community members, ensuring that the benefits of healthy environments are accessible to all members of our community.

The Field Center brings hundreds of Cincinnati Public Schools students into direct impact with nature. It has pioneered the use of Tiny (Miyawaki) Forests, pollinator gardens, and other urban environmental renewal projects throughout the area. It has identified and documented important soil and water quality issues in parks and other communal spaces. The UC Field Center is committed to helping bring the full resources of our community to the study of and improvement of the environment we all share.