Call for Participation: 2026 Imagining America National Gathering – Jun 30

Posted by Imagining America on May 19, 2026

The Call for Participation to the 2026 IA National Gathering Tides of Transition: Restoring Collective Spirit in Troubled Times is now open!

Organized in partnership with the University of California, Davis and a diverse regional Steering Committee, Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life (IA) invites participants to gather in Davis, California for the 2026 IA National Gathering, October 23-24. Reflecting on the importance of transitions – from political crises to global climate change, and personal identity to organizational transformation – this call for participation invites proposals that share stories, research, creative works, and community practices exploring the complex process of transitioning away from systems of fear and domination and towards restoring collective spirit.

Tides of Transition: Restoring Collective Spirit in Troubled Times calls on us to re-story and honor the places, knowledges, relationships, and ecologies that have been made broken through centuries of violence and abandonment, and the current intensifying fear and repression. We know that our communities are tired, and we know that being together revives our collective spirit, giving us the strength and inspiration we need in troubled times. In this moment of upheaval, the 2026 IA National Gathering draws participants to Davis, CA in the spirit of mending the roots of our connections, and to “awaken,” as Buddhist monk and activist Thích Nhất Hạnh teaches, “from the illusion of our separateness.”

The 2026 IA National Gathering also marks a transition within Imagining America, as this occasion is the last gathering organized by the IA-UC Davis team before IA moves to a new home campus in July 2027 (host announcement in summer 2026). At this moment in a natural cycle of transition for IA, we will celebrate the good work we have done together over the past decade and join the new host in dreaming up the exciting possibilities to come.

Attend a Virtual Info Session on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, 3:00-4:00 PM. Learn more about submitting a proposal to the 2026 IA National Gathering by attending this virtual information session. Register here.

Submissions are due Tuesday, June 30, 2026.

Review the Call for Participation here.