Reimagining the Academy:
Constructing Inclusive and Participatory Communities in Challenging Times
Friday, November 9 to Sunday, November 11, 2018
at Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT
The 2018 Creating Connections Consortium (C3) Summit will be hosted by Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont and will bring together participants from both liberal arts colleges and research universities.
The Creating Connections Consortium is a cross-institutional collaboration among liberal arts colleges and research universities dedicated to progressing the goals of inclusion and full participation in the academy. We are especially focused on facilitating pathways into graduate study and the professoriate for a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students, and on initiating and introducing cross-institutional structures that will build and support these changes in the culture of higher education.
Nearly six hundred undergraduates, graduates, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, administrators, and staff participated in the last three Summits combined, gathering to collectively focus on diversity and innovation in the academy.
This year, we aim to collectively reenvision what it means to transform higher education. Our framing questions and goals include: Rather than simply diversifying existing structures, how might we reimagine the academy and redefine belonging? How can we as a community rebuild academia to be more inclusive and representative of diverse perspectives? How do we move from vision to action, and what are the roles of students in this process?
Broader goals for the Summit include: providing opportunities for intellectual development and communion, skill and strategy building, fostering mutual learning, and developing strong and sustainable networks between participants.
Planning Committee Members:
Ethriam Brammer, Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, University of Michigan
Lindsay Crawford, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Connecticut College
Miguel Fernández, Chief Diversity Officer, Middlebury College (C3 PI)
Rachel Hynson, Director, Creating Connections Consortium (C3)
Alberto Ledesma, Graduate Diversity Director, University of California, Berkeley
Kailani Polzak, Assistant Professor of Art History, Williams College
Andrea Solomon, Vice Dean and Dean of Academic Affairs, Columbia University
Jessica Teets, Associate Professor of Political Science, Middlebury College