The Imagining America consortium (IA) brings together scholars, artists, designers, humanists, and organizers to imagine, study, and enact a more just and liberatory ‘America’ and world. Working across institutional, disciplinary, and community divides, IA strengthens and promotes public scholarship, cultural organizing, and campus change that inspires collective imagination, knowledge-making, and civic action on pressing public issues. By dreaming and building together in public, IA creates the conditions to shift culture and transform inequitable institutional and societal structures.
Reflecting on the importance of transitions – from political crises to global climate change, and personal identity to organizational transformation – the 2026 IA National Gathering invites participants to share stories, research, creative works, and community practices exploring the complex process of transitioning away from systems of fear and domination and towards restoring collective spirit.
Featured Image: Angelica Sauceda, Taller Arte Nuevo Amanecer (TANA) Archive
IA is pleased to share the artistic contributions created by participants from IA member institutions for the 2026 Mail Art Project (MAP). The 2026 Mail Art Project takes inspiration from the 2025 IA National Gathering – Providing Passage: Practicing the Worlds We Want, which invited us to consider how to provide passage for one another and all beings towards a more just, liberatory, and caring future.
Baltimore was the site of Imagining America’s 15th National Gathering, which centered on the theme “America Will Be! The Art and Power of ‘Weaving Our We.’” A decade later, three of the institutions that hosted the Gathering – Towson University, UMBC, and MICA – responded to IA’s call to form a new Collaboratory. Learn more about their activities in this blog post.
JULY 30, 10AM PST, ON ZOOM. In session 3, we will shift from planning work to practical tips! We will work on specific tasks related to data security, surveillance, AI features, and platform migration (for data storage, calendars, emails, etc). As always, there will be time for community sharing. Please bring your devices so we can make this a hands-on workshop, and bring your own tips and best practices for safety/sovereignty when navigating digital spaces and platforms.
+ Digital Divestment Roundtable: Practical Tips for Harm Reduction
It is our pleasure to announce that the new host of Imagining America (starting July 1, 2027) is The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State)! After a two-year search process led by the IA National Advisory Board (NAB), where we engaged multiple inspiring campus communities, Penn State emerged as a well prepared and visionary candidate to lead and strengthen the national consortium.
Annual convening of public scholars, artists, designers, students, and cultural organizers addressing today’s pressing issues.
IA is proud to share that Pennsylvania State University is the next campus home for Imagining America, starting July 1, 2027. Learn more about this intentional cycle of transition for IA.
IA fosters vibrant networks of graduate and undergraduate students from our member institutions.
IA’s research initiatives and learning opportunities leverage the intellectual and creative capital that is the consortium’s greatest strength.
We envision a world of expansive social imagination, constructed by multiple ways of knowing, where people work together to nurture healthy, vibrant, and joyful communities.
The Imagining America consortium (IA) brings together scholars, artists, designers, humanists, and organizers to imagine, study, and enact a more just and liberatory ‘America’ and world. Working across institutional, disciplinary, and community divides, IA strengthens and promotes public scholarship, cultural organizing, and campus change that inspires collective imagination, knowledge-making, and civic action on pressing public issues.
By dreaming and building together in public, IA creates the conditions to shift culture and transform inequitable institutional and societal structures.
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Funding has been provided by California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
