On this page, you will find links to various media collected from the 2011 Imagining America National Conference, entitled “What Sustains Us?”, held in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 22-24, 2011.
Participants engaged a broad range of questions about sustainability: environmental concerns (in both campus and community contexts), our existential and vocational condition, our social and institutional relations regarding humanities and arts practices, as well as concerns of globalization and the often-invisible labor that supports us.
The conference engaged questions such as:
- How can the increasing efforts to realize the democratic, public, and civic purposes of American higher education be sustained and forwarded? What sustains our engaged practices within a context of diminished resources and rapidly shifting cultures within higher education?
- How can engagement efforts contribute to sustained economic and cultural viability in urban and rural communities?
- In what ways can our work contribute to environmental sustainability and the responsible use of land, water, air, and other natural resources?
- What sustains stakeholders confronting challenges around power, race, class, and privilege?
Conference Documentation
- Conference Program
- Program Participant List
- Workshop Catalyst Paper:
Full Participation – Building the Architecture for Diversity and Community Engagement in Higher Education - Notes from Thursday’s Business Meeting
Videos
- Numerous videos from the conference are available at IA’s YouTube channel.
David Scobey’s Keynote Address
Dr. Rose Brewer’s and Mr. Seitu Jones’s Keynote Address
Photos
Our photos from the conference are also available here.
Session Materials and Reflections from Attendees
- Archive of Tweets with the hashtag #IA2011
- Poster Presentation: Questioning Our Practice and Ourselves – Post-Presentation Question-Response Sequences as a Site for Academy-Community Translation [Poster] [Handout]
- Workshop: Engaging Communities in Planning for Sustainability – Lessons from Community-University Partnerships in the Twin Cities, Mike Greco and Carissa Schively Slotterback, Ph.D.
- Conference Report, by Maureen Sweatman, Associate Director of Engaged Learning, Emory University Office for University-Community Partnerships
- IA Panel Notes by Teréz Iacovino
- Materials from the Integrated Assessment session can be found here.
