More than 80 colleges and universities and 30 cultural organizations will be engaged in 50-plus plenary sessions, workshops, performances and dialogues unfolding across Milwaukee as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee hosts the Imagining America Conference Oct. 5-8.
The annual conference’s 2016 Milwaukee agenda brings together 400 top scholars, artists, activists and community leaders from around the country to realize higher education’s democratic purposes.
“We anticipate the conference will advance long-term relationship building, leadership development, and institutional change within the consortium of more than 100 colleges, universities, and cultural organizations,” said Jamie Haft, interim managing director of Imagining America.
“UWM’s selection as Imagining America conference host is a testament to the many compelling examples of UWM faculty, staff and students partnering with local communities to harness the imaginative power of the humanities, arts, and design toward democratic renewal.”
The public-facing agenda begins at 9 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, with the opening plenary Public Education at the Crossroads, held at the Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts at UWM, 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd. The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and Marquette University join UWM as co-hosts of the 2016 Imagining America conference.
Three-hour workshops, select performances and related events are scheduled at sites across Milwaukee from Thursday to Saturday, focused on diverse topics relevant to the intersection of higher education and public life in America. Examples include:
- “This is Washington Park. This is Milwaukee,” a workshop-style preview of a 2017 Mainstage production by Alvaro Saar Rios, playwright and UWM assistant professor of theater, at 8 p.m. Oct. 6 at the UWM Mainstage Theatre, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd.
- Youth Voice & Digital Narrative, which explores digital narration as a method to evoke meaningful dialogues about youth perspectives on identity, community and political change – including a unique deliberative dialogue project that brought together Milwaukee Public Schools students and UWM faculty, at 11:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m. Oct. 7 in the library of Nova Middle and High School, 2320 W. Burleigh St.
- The closing plenary, Black Scholars for Black Lives — A Conversation About Scholar Activism with special remarks by Christiane Taubira, former French minister of justice and UWM honorary professor in the Department of French, Italian, and Comparative Literature, will be from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design Raw Space (fourth floor), 273 E. Erie St.
