Accommodating and Accounting for Diverse Creativities

In recent years, a variety of institutions have sought to promote “creativity,” investing resources into schemes aimed at fostering novel expressions and technical and social innovations. In practice, institutions often recognize, reward and encourage particular forms of creativity, sometimes to the exclusion of forms that might prove valuable according to other criteria of evaluation.

The proposed research cluster brings together scholars from diverse fields for interdisciplinary conversation on these issues. Participants’ research projects identify and document modes of creativity not often acknowledged or promoted within dominant institutions, analyze how institutional initiatives favor certain forms of creative expression over others, interrogate how these dynamics intersect with historical power asymmetries and seek to expand public discourse on what creativity might entail. 

The cluster plans to convene monthly to share research; the year will culminate with a capstone lecture from an invited speaker.

We encourage ASU colleagues from diverse disciplines to join us; please reach out to the cluster facilitators.