The following entry has been sitting as a draft, not posted, for the last four months. I just wanted to get it out there since I love Imagining America and I've been so proud of the work they've been doing.
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I recently attended the 6th Annual Imagining America national conference and was incredibly impressed with the engagement, commitment, and vision of the attendees. This was an "un-academic" academic conference in that the attendees were almost exclusively from higher education circles. I've attended my share of academic conferences and never cared much for them. They tend to feel a little dry, a little sterile, and sometimes even a little alienating. The IA national conference, on the other hand, was filled with people who want to change the world through education and change higher education by bringing the world to the ivory tower. I've worked for Imagining America as their webmaster and tech guru for several years now, and this was my first time at their national conference. I'm glad I went.
I've always been inspired by many things about Imagining America, but meeting people running humanities centers, creating structures for their campuses that contribute to a lively and rich campus cultural life. IA members are especially engaged in reaching out to the various communities within which the university/college is based. I have found that universities focus on such specialized knowledges and address such specific academic communities that I sometimes wonder how they can make any sustainable claim to universal knowledge.
It makes me very happy to see organizations like Imagining America--and all the individuals and organizations who are part of it--there to remind us that it is so critically important to support the humanities and the cultural work of empathy and understanding that they do.
Go Imagining America!
To learn more about IA, visit their web site at: http://www.ia.umich.edu.
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