Collaboratories have long been part of IA’s work to connect members across the IA consortium in the production of public knowledge and collective imagination through collaborative research and experimentation.

CURRENT COLLABORATORIES

In 2025, IA launched six new collaboratories, welcoming emergent partnerships and new communities of practice to form in areas of shared interest among IA members and partners in the broader IA network. As we approach Imagining America’s 25th anniversary, to be celebrated at the 2025 IA National Gathering in Cincinnati, we selected Collaboratories with a focus on the first two IA guiding values. These two IA values combined represent some of the most critical tensions and opportunities in our work and in the world today: 

2) Creative culture is an important site of liberation. The bold power of art and design holds the key to bringing people together in imagining and embodying a better future. Creative practices force us to suspend belief, step outside of dead-end thinking, and imagine a different way of being. Collaborative creative culture-making brings people together in ways that foster empathy, joy, play, and connection.

1) It is important to struggle with the idea of America. The idea of ‘America’ embodies both the prophetic vision and legacy of social movements that have fought for a fully equitable broad-based popular democracy, and a troubling legacy of violence, oppression, and genocide. To realize our vision, we believe that it is important to struggle with this contradiction and how it has and continues to manifest domestically, regionally, and globally.

From a virtual speaker series on the undercommons and a puppet parade performance to communities of practice on radical pedagogy, regional organizing, speculative futures, and student refuge, the following projects will be carried out across 10 IA member campuses and collaborate with at least 7 other neighboring campuses and communities.

Learn more about each of the collaboratories, including ongoing updates on opportunities to participate, by following the links below.

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PAST COLLABORATORIES

Please follow the links below to learn more about IA’s previous collaboratory projects. While these projects are no longer actively funded, the communities of practice still continue to operate and inform IA’s mission, vision, and ongoing programs.