Blog Series

At a moment when Canadian public universities are facing profound uncertainty—from financial pressures and shifting public trust to the climate crisis and democratic strain—it can be easy to fall into a narrative of scarcity. But what if higher education is not simply a system in crisis? What if it is one of the last remaining public institutions whose mandate is hope?

As part of Reimagining the Public University in a Time of Polycrisis: A National Dialogue, CERi invited a team from the Imaginative Methods Lab (IML) to design an interactive installation that would deepen participants’ engagement with the themes of the gathering and open space for creative, reflective inquiry. The IML specializes in these sorts of interventions. It operates as a methods incubator dedicated to the design, analysis, and deployment of approaches for futures-making that enable collaborative imagining, prototyping, and experiential exploration of alternative understandings of the present. We work with individuals, communities, and organizations around the globe, to develop tools and practices that prompt people to question the worlds they inhabit, make visible the ideologies shaping their experiences, and cultivate the critical literacies needed for co-creating more just and sustainable futures.

On March 31, Simon Fraser University opened the Ideas in Action series with a full room, a timely question, and a shared recognition that something fundamental is shifting. Ideas in Action, SFU's new flagship speaker series supported by the SFU President’s Office. Ideas in Action brings together SFU scholars, visiting thought leaders, students and community members to engage with the most urgent questions of our time.