Scholars in public life

 

 

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.

Register now for the 2026 IA National Gathering!

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: Taller Arte Nuevo Amanecer (TANA) Archive

WHAT’S NEW

Enacting Radical Imagination in Higher Education: A 2025 Collaboratory Report

Enacting Our Radical Imaginary (EORI): A Place-Based Activation of Speculative Learning Design, a 2025 Collaboratory, aimed to turn student projects into embodied learning experiences for the broader Georgetown community. The primary partners for this work included students and faculty from the Critical Speculative Design course; the EnActors; and the Red House, Georgetown’s curricular innovation unit, and its Baker Family Terrace, an outdoor studio classroom and gallery.

+ Enacting Radical Imagination in Higher Education: A 2025 Collaboratory Report

Celebrating & Reflecting: 25 Years of Community Based Learning and Research at Occidental College

This month’s member spotlight uplifts the Center for Community Based Learning (CCBL) at Occidental College, which will celebrate 25 years of bringing together faculty, students, and community partners as co-thinkers and collaborators in addressing social justice issues. Founded in November of 2001, by a group of faculty and then president, Ted Mitchell, the creation of the CCBL aimed to shift the College’s engagement with the local community from volunteerism to long-term reciprocal community partnerships anchored in the curriculum.

+ Celebrating & Reflecting: 25 Years of Community Based Learning and Research at Occidental College

Creating Refuge: A 2025 Collaboratory report

Following the 2024 election, the Creating Refuge Collaboratory (featuring participants from Bates, Bowdoin, Carleton, and Macalester Colleges) emerged as a collective effort to explore the ways in which civic and community engagement centers could facilitate intersectional spaces of community care, resiliency, and creative resistance for students and communities. Learn more in this blog post.

+ Creating Refuge: A 2025 Collaboratory report

 

WHAT’S HAPPENING

National Gathering

Annual convening of public scholars, artists, designers, students, and cultural organizers addressing today’s pressing issues.

 

New Campus Host

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.

Fellowships

IA fosters vibrant networks of graduate and undergraduate students from our member institutions.

 

Collaborative Research and Learning

IA’s research initiatives and learning opportunities leverage the intellectual and creative capital that is the consortium’s greatest strength.

WE ENVISION

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.

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OUR MISSION

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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GET ON THE IA MAILING LIST

SIGN UP HERE
Phone Number:

530-297-4640

Email Address:

connect@imaginingamerica.org

Physical Address:

207 3rd Street, Suite 120
Davis, CA 95616

 

Imagining America

Publications

Programs

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.