Registration now open for CPPR's Alternative Futures for Kansas: A Civic Imagination Workshop

LAWRENCE — The Center for Public Partnerships & Research at the University of Kansas is hosting the Alternative Futures for Kansas: A Civic Imagination Workshop on Nov. 15. This in-person workshop is open to the public, and its featured speaker is Jake Dunagan, Governance Futures Lab director at the Institute for the Future.

The workshop will take place from 9 a.m. to noon in the Jayhawk Room in the Kansas Union and will explore two researched future scenarios. 

Dunagan will guide participants in futures thinking by exploring multidisciplinary tools and strategies. KU Life Span Artist-in-Residence John Sebelius will help participants in creating future artifacts to support each scenario session with tangible elements that can ground and inspire an expansive exchange of ideas and support participants in sharing their point of view.

“Kansas has big questions to tackle, and no one sector or person has all the answers. The Civic Imagination Workshop provides a space for us to come together and think through alternative scenarios and see where we can take action today,” said Jackie Counts, executive director of CPPR. “We believe in the wisdom of the collective — in the students and community members of Lawrence — and their impact on future generations.”

The workshop is open to the public, but registration will be limited to 100 people. For more details and registration information, visit cppr.ku.edu/alternative-futures.

 Alternative Futures for Kansas is co-sponsored by the Achievement & Assessment Institute, Common Book program, Hall Center for the Humanities, J. Wayne & Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction and the Lawrence Arts Center.

Find previous coverage of CPPR’s approach to foresight.