Since the 2015 publication of Globalizing Knowledge, Professor Kennedy has engaged in a number of global conversations with radically different scopes of imagination, principles of design, and visions of consequence in the articulation of transformative knowledge cultures. In this presentation, he will juxtapose three: a) a technocratic approach to governing the future, associated with the Oxford Martin Commission and Pascal Lamy;  b) the pragmatic imagination of ecosystemic design associated with the work of Ann Pendleton-Jullian and John Seely Brown; and c) an AfroFuturism made popular by the cinematic debut of Black Panther and the more transgressive works of John Jennings, Stacey Robinson and others. This comparison illuminates radically different assumptions about innovation’s source. More importantly, it moves possibilities in the design of knowledge networks and their public effervescence by establishing a different sense of connection among facts, objects, and visions in the design of globalizing knowledge.

Hosted by: Center for Global Studies

In conjunction with: Center for African Studies, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, College of Education, Department of Anthropology, Department of Sociology, European Union Center, Graphic Design Program, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, International Area Studies Library, iSchool, LAS Global Studies, Office of Diversity, Equity and Access, Russian, East European and Eurasian Center, Spurlock Museum, Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program