U of M and Macalester College co-host national conference for public scholars in humanities, arts and design Sept. 22-24

The University of Minnesota and Macalester College will co-host the country’s largest gathering of scholars and leaders from humanities, arts and design disciplines at the 11th annual Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life conference, Thursday, Sept. 22, and Friday, Sept. 23, at Coffman Union on the university’s east bank campus and on Saturday, Sept. 24, on the Macalester College campus.

Based at Syracuse University in New York, Imagining America is a national consortium of 88 colleges and universities whose mission is to strengthen the public and civic purposes of humanities, arts and design through mutually beneficial campus-community partnerships that advance democratic scholarship and practice. The event, co-hosted by the university’s Office for Public Engagement and Macalester’s Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty, is expected to attract more than 400 artists and scholars from various higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations who focus on advancing the democratic, public and civic purposes of higher education.

This year’s conference theme “What Sustains Us?” focuses on broad questions about sustainability—including environmental concerns and agricultural, social, economic and institutional practices. The three-day event will feature workshops, seminars, roundtables, poster presentations and live performances on a wide range of topics from rural economic development to urban public art, as well as site visits to more than a dozen community-based organizations in the Twin Cities.

Plenary speakers are:
• David Scobey, executive dean at New York’s The New School, on “A Copernican Moment: Public Work and the Revolution in Higher Education”
• Seitu Jones, senior fellow in the U’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, and Rose Brewer, professor of Afro-American and African studies at the U, on “Seeding the Future”
• Harry Boyte, co-director of Augsburg College’s Center for Democracy and Citizenship and senior fellow at the university’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, on “Architects of Democracy – Moving from Civic Activity to Civic Identity”

“The Imagining America conference brings together the most prominent and influential publicly engaged scholars in the arts and humanities who work to integrate community and academic knowledge to address some of society’s most pressing and complex issues,” said Andrew Furco, university associate vice president for public engagement and conference organizer.

For a complete schedule of events, visit http://www.imaginingamerica.org/conferences.html.

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• Last modified on September 20, 2011