Imagining America:Artists and Scholars in Public Life

Syracuse University, New York

Vision: To realize the democratic, public, and civic purposes of American higher education.  

Mission: To animate and strengthen the public and civic purposes of humanities, arts, and design through mutually beneficial

campus-community partnerships that advance democratic scholarship and practice.  

About IA

• Campus Compact founded in 1985

• Boyer’s 1990 book, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, and 1996 article, “The Scholarship of Engagement”

• In 1999, Kellogg Commission proposes a reinterpretation of the core missions of higher education

• IA founded at 1999 White House Millennium Council meeting

Historical Context

What is public scholarship and practice?

Publicly engaged academic work is scholarly or creative activity integral to a faculty member’s academic area.

It encompasses different forms of making knowledge about, for, and with diverse publics and communities.

Through a coherent, purposeful sequence of activities, it contributes to the public good and yields artifacts of public and intellectual value.

At Individual CampusesPublic Humanities

Fordham (left), Bates (right)

Arts

UCLA

K-12 Arts and Humanities Education

SU

UC-Santa Barbara

Design

Nationally

2009 in New Orleans (left), 2010 in Seattle (right)

Conferences

IA Regional Meetings &Site Visits

Odysseus (James Hart) and Athena (Caroline Imhoff) vanquish their enemies in Finding Penelope.

IA’s Publicly Active Graduate Education

PAGE Fellows, New Orleans, 2009

IA Research Groups2011 Research Groups include:• Tenure Team Initiative Impact Study• Assessing the Practices of Public Scholarship• Engaged Undergraduate Education

Collaboratory Info Session, Seattle, 2010

IA Collaboratories & Affinity Groups

2011 Collaboratories include:•Culture and Community Revitalization•Community Knowledge

2011 Affinity Groups include:• Public Humanities Centers &

Institutes

Other Action Research ProjectsProfessional Pathways of a Publicly Engaged Education identifies the aspirations and decisions of graduate students and early career publicly engaged scholars and artists

Linking Full Participation, a research project with Syracuse University and Columbia University’s Center for Institutional and Social Change to: • increase educational access and success for underrepresented groups and communities,• build higher education's capacity to address urgent community challenges, and• prompt the institutional re-imagination needed to facilitate these goals

IA Publications

Download at www.imaginingamerica.org

Jan Cohen-Cruz, DirectorKevin Bott, Associate DirectorRobin Higgins, Assistant DirectorTimothy Eatman, Research DirectorJamie Haft, Communications ManagerJeremy Lane, Administrative SpecialistAdam Bush, PAGE Director

Questions? Contact us.

203 Tolley BuildingSyracuse UniversitySyracuse, NY 13244315-443-8590

www.imaginingamerica.org