Maura Lucking, assistant professor of the history of architecture in the UWM School of Architecture & Urban Planning, is the recipient of the 2026 Morris Fromkin Memorial Grant. 

Lucking’s project is titled “Contested Sovereignties: Visions of Land and Housing Reform by Wisconsin Oneida Activist Laura Cornelius Kellogg.” 

Lucking will investigate Oneida activist Laura Cornelius Kellogg’s Lolomi plan, a proposed urban development initiative based on Europe’s Garden City movement. The plan envisioned self-sustained and self-governed greenbelt villages that would support the expansion of the Six Nations Confederacy land base. Lucking will also describe how Kellogg’s Progressive Era ideals and controversial methods of raising capital shape the perception of Kellogg and the Lolomi plan today.  

“This research,” Lucking said, “grounds Kellogg’s flawed vision for indigenous sovereignty in her lived experiences as a Wisconsin Oneida woman while also asking questions about her reception and frequent omission from many histories of Indigenous activism.”

Kellogg’s published writings and speeches will serve as a foundation for the research as Lucking explores the activist’s housing, land reform, and public health ideas, as well as her boosterism of the Lolomi plan.  

The Fromkin Grant will be used to examine archival materials in Washington, D.C., Madison, and the Oneida Nation, as well as conduct community-engaged interviews with indigenous scholars and thinkers. Lucking will use the Fromkin Memorial Collection at UWM to explore the housing reform work Kellogg participated in as a student in Milwaukee. 

Lucking will present the results of her research at the Morris Fromkin Memorial Lecture in fall 2026. 

Lucking has previous publishing credits in journals such as Architectural Theory Review and Journal of Architectural Education. Prior to her appointment in 2022 to UWM’s School of Architecture & Urban Planning, Lucking was a fellow at the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture & Society of Fellows/Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University. 

The amount of the grant is $6,000. This year’s Fromkin committee members include Michael Doylen, Max Yela, Rachel Baum, Gabriela Nagy, Kumkum Sangari, and Mark Freeland. 

Established by Morris Fromkin’s family and supported by an endowment from Fromkin’s grandson, Daniel Soyer, the lecture series, dedicated to social justice, is the longest running lecture series on campus. The program is administered by the UWM Libraries.