In October, UMBC will host the 2015 national conference of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, where scholars, artists, designers, cultural workers and community activists will gather to advance the public and civic purposes of arts, humanities, and design. Imagining America (IA) serves as a source for information and ideas in support of engaged undergraduate and graduate pedagogies, public scholarship, and university-change initiatives helpful to administrators, faculty, staff, and students who are seeking to strengthen or initiate campus examination of and involvement with real-world issues.

UMBC had been selected as the host of the 2015 national conference six months before the nation turned its attention to Baltimore in April... (continue reading)