Imagining America Community of Practice

The Imagining America Community of Practice (IA CoP) supports faculty, staff and students from across all colleges and divisions interested in interdisciplinary collaboration to creatively re-imagine their teaching, practice and scholarship using Imagining America resources. 

People are doing a craft.
Participants work on a collage.  

Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life (IA) is a national consortium that strengthens and promotes public scholarship, cultural organizing and campus change in ways that inspire collective imagination, knowledge-making and civic action on pressing public issues. Core believes of IA include: 

  • creative culture is an important site of liberation
  • how we learn and work with one another matters
  • living up to our values requires institutional and societal change

“ The arts and creativity have everything to do with having a full toolbox to create the communities that we want to see. ”

Morna McNulty, Professor, Elementary Education and IA CoP Co-Chair

Grounded in these principles, the IA CoP builds community among faculty, staff and student changemakers, supports the infusion of community engagement across the institution, and facilitates institutional change.  

Monthly workshops serve as spaces to practice connective ways of being together that support self-care and collective revival. Workshop themes are drawn from IA resources, such as the Organizing Culture Change: Public Scholar Imagination Guide. Participants consider individual, departmental, and institutional projects and practices when completing workbook and creative activities.  

“ This experience helped reframe how I view my work, connect with others who share similar values and feel empowered to approach challenges more creatively. ”

IA CoP Workshop Participant

The IA CoP is co-chaired by Romy Hübler () and Morna McNulty (). It is organized as a FACET Community of Practice and a School of Emerging Technologies Special Interest Group. 

National Presentations

The IA CoP has been highlighted nationally through conference presentations: 

  • Activate your IA membership, 2025 Teaching and Learning Circle.
  • Creative survivance: How higher education can use creative means to build and sustain a community of changemakers, 2025 Imagining America National Gathering.