Critical Imagination Summit
Save the Date: November 20, 2026
Iliff School of Theology
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About the Conference
Critical Imagination Summit challenges us to examine our deepest beliefs about innovation, moving beyond user research to understand why we build, who benefits, and how we can collectively transform systems to build genuine trust between humans and machines. Imagination not as escapism, but as a rigorous practice for exposing power, naming harm, and cultivating more just, livable futures.
Attendees will take a systematic approach to developing emerging, technological solutions by interrogating policies, research, narratives, and outcomes.
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What is Critical Imagination?
Critical imagination is a sociotechnical approach that asks researchers and designers to rigorously interrogate any domain and surface the social, cultural, ethical, and political implications of technological choices. The inherent inquiry-based approach centers questions about how technological design and implementation shapes, and is shaped by, human systems and experiences.
This approach combines critical analysis (i.e. history, power, values, resources) with creative foresight (scenarios, prototypes, policies) and participatory methods (co?design, stakeholder narratives). Through iterative cycles of imagination, research, prototyping, and reflection, we ask: Who benefits? Who is harmed or excluded? What social practices will this enable or disrupt? What unintended outcomes may occur? How might we change the future today?
The result is a design that is not only usable and useful but accountable and anticipatory—technology built not merely as an instrument but as an active, dynamic partner to human life
Video Links
ICE at Airports, IL Primaries & AfroFuturism as Resistance | The Signal LIVE Ep 13
Want to keep in touch?
Want to be notified when more information is released?
Complete the interest form to hear about speakers, workshops, and registration.