Emergence

This year, Illinois Wesleyan University has chosen Emergence as our intellectual theme. Emergence is a process that affects people at all stages of life and describes all modes of inquiry. Our consciousness emerges as we grow from infancy into adulthood. Economies, political systems, technologies, organisms, and works of art all emerge from one nascent state into another. This is a theme that is fundamentally about what becomes possible when thresholds are crossed and phenomena come together to create richness and complexity. This intellectual theme invites you to think about your sense of purpose, your membership in an academic community, and where your journey will take you once you graduate from Illinois Wesleyan.

This fall semester, we hope that Illinois Wesleyan faculty, staff, and students will engage with lectures, workshops, performances, film screenings, events, and lesson plans that bring us together for discussion, reflection, and inspiration. At the end of the fall semester, we will invite students to present their work from courses that foreground the process of emergence. Stay tuned for more details.