Interseminars Group Releases Book
Imagining Otherwise: New Interseminars Book Reflects Faculty and Graduate Research, Collaborations
The new book Imagining Otherwise: Speculation in the Americas represents eighteen months of research insights and works-in-progress from the inaugural Interseminars Initiative cohort of the same name at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The book was released at the group's culminating symposium held at the Humanities Research Institute on September 15 and 16, 2023.
Funded in part by a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, Interseminars is an innovative experiment in interdisciplinary graduate education in the arts and humanities. Based in collaborative research and teaching, each project spans an 18-month period, culminating in a community-facing event. The grant funds three such projects through 2025.
The first Interseminars project, led by faculty members Josue David Cisneros (Communication), Patrick Earl Hammie (Art and Design), and Jorge Lucero (Art and Design), was themed “Imagining Otherwise: Speculation in the Americas.” Referencing examples from TV’s “Lovecraft Country” to recent anti-racist activist efforts, the theme centered speculation as a method for looking differently at the world—both to critically assess its status quo and to reimagine how it could be different. Studying speculative forms in art and activism, they proposed, can help guide scholarly and creative inquiry about crises ranging from climate change to systemic violence and immigration policy. The project’s work was foregrounded in the knowledge and experiences of historically marginalized communities throughout the Americas, exploring how speculation has been and can be used to reframe the past, present and future.
The cohort's nine graduate fellows hail from a range of disciplines and home colleges, including Education, Fine and Applied Arts, and Liberal Arts and Sciences: Kofi Bazzell-Smith (Art & Design), D. Nicole Campbell (Communication), Daniela Morales Fredes (Urban & Regional Planning), Adanya Gilmore (Dance), Beatriz Jiménez (Spanish and Portuguese), Ramón (Ray) Martinez (Spanish and Portuguese), Emerson Parker Pehl (English), María B. Serrano-Abreu (Educational Psychology), and Toyosi Tejumade-Morgan (Theatre).
The book contains materials and resources from class, including syllabi; a photographic year-in-review; a Q & A with the fellows on their experiences; and research writings and creative works-in-progress, including an original play and artwork. “We have done something fantastic. This book is but a breath—an incomplete bit of evidence—of that fantastic thing we've been making for 18-plus months,” said Lucero.
Members of the Interseminars group will be participating in a webinar with the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) on November 9, 2023. Learn more and register for “Imagining Otherwise: Speculating New Forms of Graduate Education in Arts and Humanities.”
You can view and read the book [PDF] online.
Learn more about the inaugural faculty conveners and graduate fellows.
Read about the second Interseminars project, “Improvise & Intervene,” and the current graduate fellows.
The Interseminars Initiative is hosted at the Humanities Research Institute and supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Graduate College, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Fine and Applied Arts, and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation.
Published 9/29/23