Weyerhaeuser: Board Room

On Imagination: Paying Homage to Our Curiosity: Workshop

Dr. Tanya Clark

This workshop is designed to celebrate and harness the transformative power of imagination and curiosity, drawing inspiration from historical and contemporary works that highlight these themes. We will begin by laying the groundwork for appreciating and connecting with our imaginative and creative selves. Through an exploration of Phillis Wheatley’s poem “On Imagination” and Ruha Benjamin’s book Imagination: A Manifesto, we will delve into how imagination has been used as a tool for transcendence, liberation, and social change. Wheatley’s poem, with its celebration of the boundless nature of imagination, offers a lens to view creative power as a means of transcending personal and social constraints. Similarly, Benjamin’s manifesto presents imagination as a critical and constructive force in activism and innovation, emphasizing its role in envisioning and building more democratic and equitable futures.

In the second part of the workshop, participants will engage in hands-on creative exercises, such as brainstorming sessions, storytelling prompts, and collaborative projects, designed to stimulate their imagination and curiosity. These activities will help unlock their creative potential, allowing them to envision new realities and solutions. By the end of the workshop, participants will have not only a deeper understanding of the historical and contemporary significance of imagination but also practical tools to apply imaginative thinking in their community-building and activist efforts. They will leave with enhanced creative skills, innovative problem-solving techniques, and a renewed sense of curiosity and empowerment to drive positive change in their lives and beyond.

Humanities: 115F

Afrofuturist Indigenous Design: Workshop

Dr. Walter Greason

At the foundations of civil society is the concept of design. In politics, design takes the shape of laws, culminating in the United States Constitution. In architecture, design manifests in roads, buildings, and energy grids. All of these systems rely on an array of shared ideas and assumptions. This workshop will provide the tools and insights to reimagine design in multiple contexts, based on principles from African and Indigenous societies around the world. During this workshop participants will learn about Afrofuturist Indigenous design.

Humanities: 215

Speculative Design: Workshop

Dr. Michael Dando

In an engaging speculative design workshop, Dr. Michael B. Norton Dando will guide participants in exploring the intersection of creativity, future-thinking, and cultural responsiveness. Centered around the essential question, "How does imagining new worlds in vivid detail expand our understanding of what’s possible and our agency in shaping those worlds to come?", this workshop encourages participants to envision and create future-oriented artifacts. Through a series of hands-on activities, participants will learn to conceptualize and design objects that address contemporary challenges while imagining innovative solutions.

Dr. Dando will facilitate activities centered on the power of speculative fiction and design to broaden our horizons, fostering a deeper understanding of potential futures and our roles in shaping them. Participants will collaborate in small cohorts, leveraging diverse perspectives and experiences to co-create artifacts that embody their collective visions of a just and equitable future. By engaging in this creative process, participants will develop skills in critical thinking, empathy, and design thinking.

This workshop offers a unique opportunity to blend speculative imagination with practical design, empowering participants to not only envision new possibilities but also to understand their capacity to influence and create future realities.

Humanities 212

Introduction to Data Justice: Workshop

Alicia Ranney & Cassandra Hendricks

Funders and human service nonprofits rely on participant data for accountability, case management, compliance, and decision-making. How often are community members involved in the decisions about what data are collected, how it’s used, the resulting impact? What are the costs of collecting data without considering its implications? What are the opportunities missed when we continue with "the way things have always been done"? The Metropolitan Alliance of Connected Communities offers an equity lens for nonprofits to consider when designing their evaluation plans or data strategies. Attendees will come away understanding what data justice is, its costs and impact, and steps they can take to put Data Justice in practice in their work.

Humanities: 215

Mobile Driver Licenses & the Expansion of Automated Policing: Workshop

Ed Vogel

Join us for a workshop to learn about how digital ID systems are increasing state violence and corporate control in the US and around the world. Right now, digital ID systems are being used to mediate access to social services, transportation, communications, housing, and more. They are part of the global push to automate policing and therefore have significant consequences for communities who are already heavily criminalized.

This workshop will outline how these systems are being implemented in the United States through the introduction of mobile or digital driver’s licenses and explore pathways for organizing to challenge the adoption of this tool of mass surveillance.