Futures Initiative

With the goal of developing a new model for higher education, the Futures Initiative was founded by Cathy N. Davidson in 2014 at the Graduate Center, CUNY, is co-chaired by Davidson and Shelly Eversley (Interim Director of Black and Latinx Studies, Baruch), with Dr. Adashima Oyo as Executive Director. Focusing on equity and innovation, the Futures Initiative develops new engaged, collaborative pedagogies that empower the next generation of intellectual leaders with bold, creative, and independent methods for confronting the problems in the world today and thinking through effective, democratic solutions. The Futures Initiative connects research, teaching, and social justice. The Futures Initiative also co-directs, in partnership with Dartmouth College, HASTAC.org (Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory, or “Haystack,”), one of the world’s first and oldest academic social networks. Through this 18,000-member network, the Futures Initiative extends its collaborative peer-to-peer practices across institutions, disciplines, national boundaries, and economic and social disparities, promoting reinvestment in higher education as a public good. Collaborative learning enables people to learn material even more deeply than more traditional teaching methods. It is also an excellent way to develop transferable skills such as collaboration, identifying needs and resources, learning with and from others, building trust, and striving toward shared goals—all of which will benefit students during their time at CUNY and beyond. Students also gain a variety of skills that will be beneficial for many careers that require collaboration, learning with and from others, building trust, and striving toward shared and common goals. https://www.gc.cuny.edu/events/future-higher-education