Visionary Community Fellowship Award
Arianna (right) connected with students at Minneapolis College through Revelar Lab’s community-driven research.
The Visionary Community Fellowship from the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) and Liberal Arts Engagement Hub (The Hub) is designed to invite greater and more substantive dialogue between community leaders, artists, activists, and surrounding community. The program provides a platform for community members to lead the University in identifying and prioritizing programming and research around themes of central importance. Fellows receive $10,000 and spend a year in residency at the IAS to pursue research and develop community programming in collaboration with the IAS and The Hub.
2025-2026 Visionary Community Fellow
Arianna Genis is a seasoned organizer and strategist with a decade of experience in movement building and politics. Her work has driven equity and systemic change through organizations like Mijente, re:power, and TakeAction Minnesota. Arianna played a pivotal role in securing paid sick time for thousands of Minneapolis workers, leading campaigns to elect progressive candidates of color, and overseeing North Carolina’s largest Latino voter mobilization effort in 2020. Her leadership focuses on empowering working-class communities through grassroots organizing, political campaigns, and strategic narratives. Previously, as Organizer-In-Residence and Research Scholar at the P3 Lab at Johns Hopkins University, she worked on developing an initiative aimed at elevating Latinx political participation to foster a more just, multiracial democracy. In August 2024, she founded The Movida Initiative: A Democracy Lab for Latinos.
While a Visionary Community Fellow, Genis will work with Jessica Lopez-Lyman, Assistant Professor of Chicano & Latino Studies, as her faculty mentor. Genis was also the 2024-2025 Visionary Community Fellow and is currently in her second year of fellowship.
Watch her TedTalk "Beyond Voting Machines: Unleashing Latino Agency for a More Equitable Democracy."
“Forging Movidas: Latino Agency and the Reimagining of Democracy”
2025–26 Project Abstract
Movidas are a Latino expression of agency. They are the capacity, forged through neglect, to create paths forward when no roadmap exists. Movidas take shape in practices like mutual aid and DIY protections against ICE or wage theft. Too often dismissed as survival, they in fact generate trust, belonging, and the ability to act together. I frame movidas as democracy-capacity building, a resource for reimagining how communities organize power in conditions of uncertainty. Through the Movida Initiative, I have led ten pláticas, culturally grounded listening sessions rooted in Chicana feminist practice, with Latino Millennials in the Twin Cities, alongside conversations with organizers, political operatives, and funders. A clear finding has emerged: most of the advocacy and political ecosystem engages Latinos only as single-issue voters or through the lens of immigration and low-wage work. These narrow frames erase broader civic and economic realities and discount Latino agency. They also underscore why movidas must be recognized as vital resources for democracy. This year, I will complete the final pláticas in Greater Minnesota and synthesize findings into a public report.
Beyond Voting Machines: Unleashing Latino Agency for a More Equitable Democracy
Agency is the ability of a group to act and shape their future. It's often overlooked in politics, yet it's crucial for a strong democracy. My ongoing research on Latino agency, or "movidas," highlights their remarkable tenacity and ability to navigate uncertainty outside of traditional systems. This unique capacity offers us a key to reimagining democratic participation, one where we better harness the existing agency of marginalized communities and take a leading role in realizing a more equitable democracy, capable of meeting the challenges of our time.
Independent journalist and multimedia producer Ralph L. Crowder III was selected as the first Community Fellow with the IAS and The Hub. As the program director of archive materials for The Frances E. Thompson Digital Library for Family Research, Crowder spent time over the course of his spring 2023 fellowship doing research and development for presenting collection materials. In May 2023, he launched Before the Mayflowers Landed, a three-day film and media showcase at the Northrop Best Buy Theater and the Liberal Arts Engagement Hub. The kickoff event featured a premier screening of "The Lost Negroes of North America," a silent film experience which examines northern family and community life in South Minneapolis circa 1945–1955.