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September 2022 Newsletter |
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Early bird registration rates for the 2022 Imagining America National Gathering
are now available through September 16, 2022.
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Dear Imagining America Community,
The countdown to New Orleans has begun! IA staff is hard at work with our New Orleans colleagues to finalize the 2022 IA National Gathering program, hosted in partnership with Tulane University and Ashé Cultural Arts Center, October 14-16.
To welcome everyone into the Gathering, we are extending early bird registration discounts through September 16 and sharing details from the program (to be released next week!).
This year’s Gathering features 78 concurrent sessions, three plenaries, an interactive space for healing rituals and art making, as well as visits to six community-hosted sites. We will bring together activists, artists, cultural workers, and scholars from over 60 institutions and organizations to celebrate, learn, and engage in Rituals of Repair and Renewal in New Orleans.
Major program themes reflect the central importance of storytelling, art-making, design, community organizing, and collective histories on a range of social concerns, from addressing racial injustice, classroom pedagogy, university-community partnerships, and health inequities, to creating the conditions for cultural thriving. Responding to the Gathering theme, proposals reimagine everyday practices, labor, education, and relations within and beyond the university as rituals imbued with meaning.
We open the Gathering with a Friday morning plenary that celebrates Carol Bebelle -- long-time IA friend, collaborator, and former National Advisory Board member. Carol is a native New Orleanian, poet, advisor, administrator, dedicated servant leader, co-founder of Ashé Cultural Arts Center, and recipient of IA’s Randy Martin Spirit Award. Carol will share the transformative work from Ashé’s twenty-five-year history in her presentation, “What it Comes Down To / A Cultural Continuum: Animating Culture With The Establishment of Ashé Cultural Arts Center (A Community-based Cultural Arts Center).”
The 2022 IA Gathering program offers multiple spaces to learn from each other and become inspired through our collective work:
Roundtable discussions will address how to build pathways for the next generation of arts and cultural leaders; new methods for publicly-engaged environmental design; radical visions and aspirations for graduate school education; and histories of trauma within academic institutions.
Participatory workshops will compile an “Archive of Renewal and Rest”; explore how higher education institutions can better support community partners; engage in collective visioning on bell hooks’ concept of homeplace; learn from African American women elders’ (AAWE) approaches to anti-black racism; examine the nature of collaborations that reinforce respect and encourage friction as essential to growth; and practice wellness rituals that shape personal and collective identity.
Media sessions will share story circle practices in the art and science of Nursing; themes of love and memory in AfroCreole music; performanced-based work through community-artist-scholar collaborations; student responses to gun violence prevention; audiovisual interpretations of land relations; and migration narratives.
Other creative sessions focus on art-making -- “Pandemic Postcards,” comic books, board games, and contemporary reimaginings of ancestral shrines; performance -- facilitated writing exercises, group singing, an improvised “Breath Chorus,” and the ritual of serving tea; and collective movement.
A Community-Engaged Graduate Education track includes 26 sessions highlighting the work of graduate and undergraduate students and their community partners. IA’s Publicly Active Graduate Education fellows present their projects in a “Lightning Talk” format, and researchers from PAGE and UC Davis share findings from IA’s Leading and Learning Initiative action research project on the critical and hopeful experiences of engaged graduate scholars. The final Sunday plenary is organized by Ryan McBride and Diana Soto-Olson from Tulane University’s Mellon Graduate Program in Community-Engaged Scholarship and will offer a hopeful vision of what equitable community-engaged research can look like.
Even more than the inspiring sessions, we are excited by the simple prospect of gathering together to embrace familiar faces and welcome new ones. IA Staff are especially thrilled to celebrate our new PAGE Fellows, Joy of Giving Something (JGS) Fellows, and seven new member institutions: Bergen Community College; California State University, Fullerton; University of North Carolina, Asheville; University of Montana; University of Texas, Austin; University of Cincinnati; and College Unbound. If you are interested in becoming an IA member, please reach out to Trina Van Schyndel, IA Membership Director, at tlva@ucdavis.edu.
With respect and reverence for one another, we will not take for granted the mundane and extraordinary ritual of sharing space with those whom we share a common purpose. We can’t wait to see you in New Orleans.
With care,
Stephanie Maroney
IA Managing Director
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Membership and Community News | | |
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Member Spotlight:
California State University Fullerton (Fullerton, CA)
| Faculty, students, and staff at California State University Fullerton (CSUF) are actively complicating popular images of Orange County, CA, as a bastion of beaches, political conservatism, and the Disney metropolis through innovative public humanities projects, institutional initiatives, and curricular pathways that center first-generation students and communities of color. Below are just some ways we are mobilizing our 41,000 strong student population to engage the globally integrated communities who make the OC their home. | |
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Building Digital Ethnic Futures with CSUF Digital
CSUF Digital is a multi-faceted three-year institutional capacity-building initiative to advance digital ethnic studies and publicly engaged digital scholarship at CSUF and beyond. As part of the larger Andrew Mellon funded Digital Ethnic Futures Consortium (DEFCon) share the Consortium's goal to build the next generation of social justice-engaged digital humanities scholars by offering minoritized students hands-on exploration and mentorship in the public digital humanities through participation in year-long research projects, summer fellowships, and professional development training. Learn more HERE and follow through Instagram and Twitter at #csufdigital.
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Data Storytelling with #Networked OC
This ongoing digital public humanities project, Directed by Dr. Jamila Moore Pewu, seeks to creatively document the past, present, and future of Black-Owned businesses and community organizations in Orange County, CA, using interactive digital maps, oral histories, and data storytelling. This project contributes to Black economic futures by creating open access humanities data; and supporting a creative technology collaborative and opportunity incubator called #Networked Scholars, which connects Black, first-generation students, and other students of color in the humanities and arts to local businesses, corporate and community partners and scholars in Digital Humanities and African American Studies. Find them in the news, check their soft launch community feedback page, and follow at #NetworkedProject
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Art + Collaboration: The Nicholas and Lee Begovich Gallery and MUZEO
As the Nicholas and Lee Begovich Gallery at CSUF undergoes extensive renovation, it has partnered with Anaheim-based MUZEO Museum and Cultural Center to present the exhibition Figures, Poses, and Glances: Coded Illustrations of J.C. Leyendecker. It will feature the work of one of the most prolific artists of the Golden Age of American Illustration. Leyendecker intertwined queer culture and identity throughout his work while defining the image of the early 20thcentury American man. This exhibit is curated by Clark Silva, MA candidate in Art History (' 23), and will be on view from February 18 through April 19, 2023, at MUZEO.
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Innovative Arts Future's Conference
Since its founding in 2020, the Institute for Black Intellectual Innovation has endeavored to pursue community, conversation, collaboration, and elevation as pathways towards institutionalizing support and inclusion of Black people, culture, creative arts, and intellectual history at CSUF and throughout Orange County. Through the Institute, Dr. Natalie J. Graham organizes and facilitates the Innovative Arts Futures conference, an all-day event that celebrates the eclectic "beloved" communities that we resolutely make together and their various, beautiful forms. Our nation, our family, our food, and our music create and recreate the interlocking weave that has always joined us together, even in turbulent times. This conference will continue in-person in 2023. Learn more HERE and follow @ibiicsuf.
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Engaging Radical/Deep/Counter Mapping Practices Through The Public Arts Landscape
Mapping Arts OC is a public humanities project produced in collaboration with students at CSUF, local artists, and community partners throughout Orange County, California. Mapping Arts consists of an interactive digital map, bilingual mobile walking tour, and custom-designed K-5 coloring and activity book that all invite new spatial and cultural interpretations into existing conversations and historical narratives regarding public art and spatial practices in Santa Ana, CA, and the greater Orange County region. This project's digital platform is being redesigned by the CSUF Digital team and renamed Art of the Matter. Learn more about the redesign HERE and visit the flagship project site.
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New Members: University of Cincinnati, University of Montana, UNC Ashville, UT Austin, and College Unbound
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Imagining America is honored to welcome the University of Cincinnati, the University of Montana, the University of North Carolina, Ashville, the University of Texas at Austin, and College Unbound to IA's coalition of colleges and universities with a shared commitment to public scholarship, cultural organizing, and campus change!
Curious how you can become a member of IA? Reach out to Membership Director Trina Van Schyndel at tlva@ucdavis.edu.
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Early Bird Registration for the 2022 IA National Gathering extended to September 16
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Registration for 2022 IA National Gathering: Rituals of Repair and Renewal at early bird rates will be up for two more weeks. Organized in partnership with Tulane University, the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, and a local steering committee, the 2022 IA National Gathering will be held in person on October 14-16, 2022. Reserve your place and register now. Remember to book your room at NOPSI Hotel in New Orleans with a special discount for Gathering attendees visiting the IA National Gathering website.
Early bird rates through September 16.
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IA National Gathering Sponsorship Options Still Available
| Would you be interested in sponsoring the 2022 IA National Gathering: Rituals of Repair and Renewal? There are still options to take out an ad in our program ($450-1100), sponsor a plenary session ($1000-3000), and share your organization's work in multiple ways throughout the Gathering as a Contributing, Collaborating, or Presenting Sponsor (amounts vary). As a sponsor, your messaging and branding will reach higher education administrators, faculty, staff, students, local, regional, and national scholars, artists, and organizers. If you are interested in sponsorship, please contact Trina Van Schyndel, IA Membership Director, at tlva@ucdavis.edu. |
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Congratulations to the 2022-23 cohorts of PAGE and IA/JGS Fellows!
| The PAGE Fellowship program is Imagining America's (IA) network for publicly engaged graduate students. PAGE enhances the praxis and pedagogy of public scholarship; fosters a national, interdisciplinary community of peers and veteran scholars; and creates opportunities for collaborative knowledge production. The PAGE consortium, made up of alumni and allies of the program, promotes opportunities for mentorship and peer support from IA's broader network. | |
2022-23 PAGE Fellows
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Antonia (Ant) Lorenzo, University of California, Santa Cruz, MFA - Environmental Art and Social Practices
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Blya Krouba, University of Houston, MFA - Photography & Digital Media
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Brittany Daniels, California State University, Dominguez Hills, MA - Social Work
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Cristovão Nwachukwu, University of Florida, Ph.D. Candidate - English
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Fernando David Márquez Duarte, University of California, Riverside, Ph.D. Student - Political Science
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Marisa Raya, University of California, Davis, Ph.D. Student - Geography
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Nathaly Ortiz, University of California, Riverside, Ph.D. Student - Ethnic Studies
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Rashmeet Kaur, Drexel University, MA - Public Health
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The IA/JGS Fellowship program is IA's network for undergraduate students interested in publicly engaged art and media making. JGS specifically seeks to elevate photography and digital media as pathways for undergraduate students to pursue their careers and make a difference in their communities. The program also aims to support students whose economic and family circumstances render such career pathways particularly challenging. | |
2022-23 IA/JGS Fellows
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Aniqa Ahmed, Senior; Political Science; University of Florida
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Sherley Arias-Pimentel, Senior; Anthropology and Global Studies; University of Richmond
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Jose Cuevas-Lopez, Senior; Media And Communication / Law, Economy, and Public Policy; University of Washington, Bothell
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Angelica Flores Valdivia, Junior; Criminology, Law, and Society / Chicano Latino Studies; University of California, Irvine
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Jayonna Johnson, Sophomore; Photography; University of Dayton
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Deborah Olatunji, Junior; Psychology / Anthropology / Africana Studies; University of Pennsylvania
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Tyler Sanchez, Junior; Psychology / Media + Cultural Studies / English; Macalester College
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Kalsang Tsering, Senior; Electrical Engineering; Bunker Hill Community College
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Join the upcoming "Meet IA" session
September 14 | 1 pm PT / 4 pm ET | Zoom
| Meet IA sessions are designed to help orient prospective, new, or current members (i.e., leadership, faculty, staff, and students) to the IA network. Attendees can expect to interact with IA staff and National Advisory Board members and hear about current and upcoming IA initiatives and programs. There will also be time for questions throughout the session. |
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Register for the Next "Dissertation Dish" Webinar
October 11 | 11 am PT / 2 pm ET | Zoom
| Register now for the next Dissertation Dish, "On Becoming a People's College: An Appreciative Inquiry," with Sean Crossland, Assistant Professor of Higher Education Leadership at Utah Valley University. Dissertation Dish is an ongoing webinar series and a collaboration between the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE), Imagining America, and LEAD California (formerly California Campus Compact). Each Dissertation Dish will highlight quality emerging research in service learning and community engagement by providing a platform for recent doctoral degree recipients to share their work more broadly. |
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Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship Call for Applications
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The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University announces its 2023-2024 Radcliffe Fellowship application for faculty. Radcliffe fellows are exceptional writers, scholars, public intellectuals, practitioners, and artists whose work makes a difference in their professional fields and the larger world. Based in Radcliffe Yard, fellows join a uniquely interdisciplinary and creative community. With access to Harvard's resources, Radcliffe fellows develop new tools and methods and challenge artistic and scholarly conventions.
The deadline to apply is September 8.
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Testing Our Mettle Webinar Series
September 16 | 11:30 am PT / 2 :30 pm ET | Zoom
| Organized by the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE), this 2-part webinar series will guide Community Engagement Professionals (CEPs) through reorienting our relationships to our professional roles and reviving our motivation to act as change agents in our institutions and beyond. CEPs have long occupied liminal spaces at the nexus of campus and community, playing myriad roles in advancing the public purpose of our higher education institutions. However, the current context poses challenges for CEPs to validate our roles and make the case for the impact of our work due to changing institutional priorities, growing inequities, and limited resources. Registration is free for all participants. |
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Connecting Communities Digital Initiative (CCDI) Grant Opportunities
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CCDI announces the second round of grant opportunities for libraries, archives, museums, and higher education institutions that seek to amplify the stories of Black, Indigenous, Hispanic or Latino, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and other communities of color by using the Library of Congress's digital collections. Educational and cultural institutions are invited to apply through the Of the People: Widening the Path Connecting Communities Digital Initiative.
The deadline to apply is September 30.
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Introduction to Liberatory Design Workshop
October 4 | 10 am PT / 1 pm ET | Zoom
| LEAD California and Saint Mary's College of California are collaborating with the National Equity Project to bring their Introduction to Liberatory Design Workshop to the community engagement community. Join for a high-quality professional development opportunity designed to support your community engagement work. This three-hour interactive event is being held via zoom and features the mindsets and modes of Liberatory Design. |
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National Humanities Center Residential Fellowships 2023–2024 Call for Applications
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The National Humanities Center invites applications for academic-year or one-semester residential fellowships. Mid-career, senior, and emerging scholars from all areas of the humanities with a strong record of peer-reviewed work are encouraged to apply. Scholars from all parts of the globe are eligible; stipends and travel expenses are provided. Fellowship applicants must have a PhD or equivalent scholarly credentials. Fellowships are supported by the Center's own endowment, private foundation grants, contributions from alumni and friends, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The deadline to apply is October 6.
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Davis, CA and Surrounding Region |
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California Humanities Grantseeker Workshop Opportunity
September 7 | 10 am PT | Zoom
| If you are looking for funding support for a public humanities or media project or want to learn more about grant programs at California Humanities, register for an information session about upcoming funding opportunities for humanities programming in California. The program staff will overview our current grant opportunities, offer tips on preparing your proposal, and discuss what makes an application competitive. Attendees will have ample opportunities to ask questions. |
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Environmental Justice Leaders Program Call for Applications
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Community organizers, advocates, and practitioners from across the country are invited to apply to take part in the second year of the UC Davis Environmental Justice Leaders in Residence Program (formally EJ Fellowship Program). EJ leaders from across the country will work on a project to benefit their community in partnership with researchers. Participants will network with elected officials, policymakers, and industry leaders.
The deadline to apply is September 9.
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Building Collective Leadership for Culture Change: Stories of Relational Organizing on Campus and Beyond by Maria Avila
| Longtime IA friend, partner, and former National Advisory Board member, Maria Avila was fortunate to expand on her most recent work at CSU Dominguez Hills, an IA member campus, through several on and off-campus research in action projects; five of these are featured in her new book. |
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Collaboratory's Open Dataset
| The Collaboratory Open Access Dataset is now publicly available on the CivicLEADS data repository hosted by ICPSR at the University of Michigan, an IA member campus. Collaboratory hosts the largest dataset of its kind, representing data on community engagement and public service activities occurring between higher education and its surrounding communities. |
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Against Pessimism, Conjuncture podcast
| Conjuncture is a web series and podcast curated and co-produced by Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton for the Trinity Social Justice Initiative. In this episode, Jordan T. Camp speaks with historian Robin D. G. Kelley, a longtime friend of Imagining America, about the history of racial capitalism, the roots of fascism, and the freedom dreams of social movements. Listen to Kelley's inspiring words. |
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Land Back, Radical Imagination podcast
| In this episode, Angela Glover Blackwell dialog with Kavon Ward, poet, activist, and the founder of 'Where is My Land?'. A leader in today's fight for reparations, Kavon, who helped win a landmark victory around Justice for Bruce's Beach in Southern California, talks about her work and other grassroots leaders and their steadfast advocacy explicitly focused on getting the land back to the Bruce family – land that was stolen from the family back in the 1920s |
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Coordinator for Community Engagement, Towson University (Towson, MD)
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The Coordinator for Community Engagement is responsible for the implementation of community engagement programs and initiatives on campus and beyond, including training student leaders and developing and maintaining relationships with TU departments, local nonprofit organizations, and community leaders. The Coordinator for Community Engagement works closely with the Director and Assistant Director of Civic Engagement to develop short-term and long-term applied learning opportunities connected to the following thematic areas: environmental health and well-being, nutrition security, gender equality, immigrant rights, and racial equity. The Coordinator for Community Engagement supervises two graduate assistants and reports to the Assistant Director for Civic Engagement. Connect students and student organizations who are seeking community engagement opportunities to local nonprofit organizations. Develop and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with local nonprofit organizations and community leaders whose work aligns with the five core areas.
The deadline to apply is September 28.
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Program Manager, Bonner Foundation (Princeton, NJ)
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This position is designed for someone with a strong interest in the civic and community engagement field and a desire to support the success of the Bonner Program and related campus-wide efforts at more than 70 colleges and universities in the national Bonner Network. The Program Manager will work primarily with professional campus-based staff and faculty who build and manage the Bonner Program and centers for campus community engagement. The Program Manager is a member of the Bonner Foundation staff and campus support team, working closely with other Foundation staff members. The Program Manager should work well with campus professionals, faculty, and student leaders. They will play a key role in ensuring that these people effectively build and sustain high-quality campus programs. The Program Manager will lead and work with the broader Foundation team in planning and executing 3-5 annual in-person conferences and a range of webinars for the Bonner Network.
The deadline to apply is September 30.
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Event and Programs Assistant, I-House (Davis, CA)
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International House Davis (I-House Davis) is a non-profit organization that connects people, experiences, and perspectives within a global framework. Under the supervision of the Facilities and Programs Manager, the Events and Programs Assistant will serve as an I-House representative and primary customer service liaison during facility rentals, special events, and other programs as needed. They will assist in the planning and implementing I-House events and programs and be responsible for maintaining I-House facilities before, during, and after rentals, events, and programs. They will exercise a high degree of initiative and independent judgment in carrying out job responsibilities within established guidelines, policies, and procedures.
Applications reviewed on a rolling basis.
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Associate Director, Institute for Community and Economic Engagement, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) (Greensboro, NC)
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The Associate Director focuses primarily on building and sustaining institutional relationships and commitments externally with local communities to advance Community Engaged (CE) scholarship. This helps UNCG to align community priorities with scholarly interests and talent by building relationships, bridges, and capacity. Time is likely spent on helping to coordinate the development of multi-institutional, cross-sector, and inter/transdisciplinary scholarships that are part of special initiatives accepted or led by ICEE. These are projects like LEAP, BToP, and other emerging collaborations that UNCG is being asked to participate in and which require coordination among many different groups and individuals.
Applications reviewed on a rolling basis.
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Associate Director, Center for Democracy and Civic Life, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Baltimore, MD)
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Reporting to the Director and working closely with diverse groups of staff, faculty, student, alumni, and external partners, the Associate Director will play a leading role in developing, managing, and communicating about the Center's initiatives. The Associate Director will also supervise most members of a highly collaborative staff team and represent the Center to various audiences on campus and beyond. Many students who participate in the Center's programs identify as members of groups that historically have been marginalized or underrepresented on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and socioeconomic status. The Associate Director will work with colleagues to ensure that the Center's programs are inclusive and empowering, and contribute to a campus culture where everyone can thrive.
Applications reviewed on a rolling basis.
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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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