Reimagining Our Personal, Public, and Political Lives. NYC
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About the Event
Changemakers! Fire up your relational imagination
Amid dissonance and division, gather as improvisers of possibility, ensemble players in care, and weavers of bridges toward a more generous world—an ecology of connection where human and more-than-human lives entwine in fragile, co-creative rhythms, reminding us that we belong to a living, breathing assemblage greater than ourselves.
Join us for a vibrant gathering across disciplines to deepen our connections and spark meaningful collaboration–re-imagining our personal, public, and political lives.
Who's the Symposium For
We are intentionally stepping beyond the conventional naming of “who should attend” this symposium. To reimagine our lives requires generative, humanizing conversations, playing with language games that traverse boundaries—drawing upon the richness of lived experience, transcending the predefined disciplines or occupations. Join us if you are seeking to:
- make social transformation
- engage in the generative power of dialogue
- be in the making of justice
- make change that matters
- step into difficult conversations
- be in a transforming embodied experience
- make sense together
- communicate across differences
- be in relational play
Catalytic Conversations
The Socio-Relational Imperative
Why do social and relational practices matter for a generative life, especially in the midst of divisiveness and dissonance? What do we even mean by the relational imperative? How does a constructionist locate the social, and how do we engage it to make better worlds?
Fri, Feb 27, 2026
4:00 PM to 5:15 PM
Money, Measurement & Governance: A Social Project
A sparkling dialogue reimagining the systems and stories that shape our public lives as relational and responsive. How do we not split the social from the economic? Rather, see the economics as a social project, not just socially organizing? What shifts when we center connection, care, justness, and lived experience in how we organize, who (ac)counts, and what’s governed? How might we challenge taken-for-granted regressive norms to co-create more inclusive and dialogic forms of coordination across institutions, communities, and organizations–all viewed as the public sphere?
Sat, Feb 28, 2026
09:00 AM to 10:30 AM
Hope, Agency & Community: Practices for Togetherness
A generative dialogue exploring how we might respond to disconnection and division locally within our communitites and relationships: What practices foster belonging, mutual care, and meaningful change today? How might we embrace the processual messiness of co-creating and uncertainity as we bridge differences and power differentials?
Sat, Feb 28, 2026
02:00 PM to 3:15 PM
About the event
This symposium invites us to reimagine our public and political lives through generative formats: Catalytic Conversations spark shared inquiry; Food for Thought papers seed discussion; Dialogic Reflections deepen themed exploration; and Embodied Self-Organizing Spaces empower participants to convene around emergent questions, cultivating a truly participatory and relational gathering.
Catalytic Conversations Panels
Catalytic Conversations are generative dialogues where thought leaders seed ideas, spark inquiry, and invite collective reflection on vital themes.
Food for Thought Papers
Food for Thought papers are short, provocative submissions that pose questions, share insights, or spark dialogue around key symposium themes.
Dialogic Reflections
Dialogic Reflections are breakout spaces for thematic conversation, inviting collective inquiry around pre-submitted “Food for Thought” provocations.
Embodied Self-Organizing Spaces
Embodied Self-Organizing Spaces are open, flexible sessions where participants initiate and host conversations, activities, or collaborations sparked by emerging themes or shared interests.
Reimagining our personal, public, and political lives
Join us for a vibrant gathering across disciplines to deepen our connections and spark meaningful collaboration, re-imagining our personal, public, and political lives.
Contact
1-(440)-201-9118
Mercy University,
Manhattan Campus
47 West 34th Street
(Near Herald Square)
New York, NY 10001