ISLS 2026 Agenda

1:00 PM

1 option

Plenary Session · Barclay

Keynote: Imagination, Impact, and Epistemic Justice

Artist and educator Marisa Moran Jahn shares two decades of socially engaged work, arguing that joyful, playful, and imaginative approaches drive broad-scale social impact and epistemic justice. Examples range from the Bibliobandido literacy movement in rural Honduras to the CareForce project amplifying domestic workers' voices through mobile studios and film.

Arts-Based & Creative Learning

2:00 PM

1 option

Arts Gallery & Performance

Arts Gallery & Performance - Static Installations All Week

A week-long static gallery of arts-based installations exploring learning through the body, culture, materials, and emerging technology. Works span trans body politics and abolitionist imaginaries, immersive VR/AR and digital reading, and craft-based math via crochet, paper, and youth creative computing with community data art.

Arts-Based & Creative Learning in a talk

30 talks

2:30 PM

2 options scroll

Short Paper · ALP 1120

Learning processes in Higher education

Short papers on learning processes in higher education, spanning engineering improvisation under uncertainty, support for first-generation biology students, and curiosity and metacognition in productive failure. Others examine primary source projects in undergraduate math and fair measurement of metacognitive regulation in online STEM.

Arts-Based & Creative Learning in a talk

5 talks

Short Paper · ALP 2700

Arts, Expressions, Identity

Short papers exploring how the arts support identity work, wellness, and disciplinary learning, from artmaking with youth and non-judgmental art pedagogy to reconstructing disabled identities in undergraduate courses. Other talks link art-making to computational thinking, integrate arts with science teaching, and examine trans* body politics in sport.

Arts-Based & Creative Learning in a talk

6 talks

4:30 PM

2 options scroll

Symposium · ALP 2500

From Enrichment to Essential: The Value of the Arts in Learning and Education

A symposium positioning the arts as central rather than peripheral to learning, countering funding cuts and narrow evaluation frameworks that obscure their value. Six contributions present methodological and theoretical innovations and purposeful partnerships, delivered through a participatory fishbowl and co-created emotional cartography of insights.

Arts-Based & Creative Learning

Arts Gallery & Performance · ALP 3700

#1281: Let It Go & Lost and Found in Chi-Town: Short One-Person Productions

A practice-based arts performance and research presentation on how interdisciplinary arts facilitate trauma recovery and self-agency among incarcerated and formerly incarcerated youth. Drawing on two decades of practitioner-researcher work, it uses solo dramatic interpretations, songs, and podcasts to amplify marginalized voices and spark dialogue on mass incarceration and racial equity.

Arts-Based & Creative Learning