Visionary Futures Collective – ARLIS/NA Multimedia & Technology Reviews

Reviewed by:
Rebecca K. Friedman, Assistant Librarian
Marquand Library, Princeton University
rfriedma@princeton.edu
https://doi.org/10.17613/pt19-8888

The Visionary Futures Collective represents students, scholars and staff working in higher education or in academic-adjacent roles. All work in or around humanities disciplines, and are “increasing transparency, sharing vulnerability, and working collectively to imagine and create a better future for higher education.” One must dig a bit deeper to determine the specific challenges in higher education being referred to in the group’s mission statement. “Today Must be Sunday,” under “Our Projects,” then “News,” links to an online conversation that gives a sense of the challenges being referred to, along with the group’s desire to connect and collaborate online.

The Visionary Futures Collective brings together humanists across the United States to tackle challenges relating to the present and future of higher education.

This group is made up of scholars of the humanities. Many, but not all of us have or are currently pursuing graduate degrees. Many, but not all of us work or study at universities. Some, but not most of us, are professors. All of us believe in the transformational power and vital importance of the humanities.

This group believes that the study of human history and cultural expression is essential to a more just and meaningful society. Our purpose is to create the conditions in which this work can thrive.

We begin with the premise that current conditions in higher education are incompatible with the work of the humanities. We formed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic because we understood that this public health crisis would exacerbate the structural inequities that characterize U.S. higher education. Our work is shaped by the long-overdue national reckoning with racial inequities led by the Black Lives Matter movement. — A portion of the mission statement of the *Visionary Futures Collective* found on the group’s website

The site and group projects seem to have taken off in Summer 2020, and as of September of that year, featured two initiatives: the Covid-19 Tracker, a survey and resulting data related to the state of campuses at colleges and universities across the U.S., and the Academic Psychic Friends Network for “writing, resources, and swag for academic friends dreaming of a better future.” Subsequent endeavors included “#CovidCampus: Students respond to Covid-19,” “Covid 19 & Academic Labor: An Action Deck for Campus Workers,” “The Caregivers Survey,” “International Student Survey,” “Job Market Support Network,” and “Postcards for Rage and Renewal”: a “collective art project with the Inkcap Collective.” All are linked under “Our Projects” on the main page. (Covid tracker image here)

Screenshot of Covid-19 tracker project with a map of the U.S. marked with colored dots of various sizes corresponding to emotions felt by college campus workers in the Fall of 2021.

The site offers multiple ways to get involved by taking a survey, recording one’s experiences, sharing information about a campus strike or other action, contributing content, or sharing other data collection projects. There is also a Resources page. Advocacy towards greater inclusion is front and center, with efforts to highlight the experiences of BIPOC and other under-represented and/or oppressed communities within higher education.

The group offers an occasional newsletter and blog and hosts monthly “First Friday” Tarot Party events utilizing the academic tarot card deck that the group created. 22 cards serve as academic versions of the Major Arcana cards found in a traditional tarot deck. The events offer informal discussion and bonding over shared concerns, with an opportunity to “ask the cards” to help provide some direction or insights. Tarot is used “as a way to tell stories of hope about higher education.”

One single tarot card from the academic tarot deck created by the VFC. Card II featuring a dark-haired woman with glasses seated on a red chair between two Classical columns and in front of two stacks of banker boxes, while holding a microfilm reel. — Academic tarot cards from the deck created by Visionary Futures Collective

One single tarot card from the academic tarot deck created by the VFC. Card XI featuring three non-white individuals of diverse backgrounds sit or stand in front of an archway surrounded by many colored books in bookshelves. Two wear masks, one wears a shield and there is a floating, rainbow colored fist in the middle of the figures. — Academic tarot cards from the deck created by Visionary Futures Collective

The site and its content do not necessitate creating an account or downloading any software, with the exception of VFC publicity or awards linking out to other sites that may require a subscription or account creation. The group’s web presence, on the GitHub platform, points to projects that members have undertaken from 2020 to the present, “using digital platforms, data collection and visualization, and storytelling resources to build community and solidarity and to help one another move from fear and anger into action.” While GitHub is used by IT developers and others needing to share code and/or develop software, it is now a subsidiary of Microsoft and can be used to host open-source projects. The VFC is using Jekyll to host their GitHub website. The most recent VFC email/newsletter focused on “Rage and Renewal”: group members have learned “to feel the outrage and despair that comes in waves in this unjust world… [and to find] ways to move those feelings towards action….” This newsletter also draws attention to a timely initiative to preserve content in Ukrainian cultural heritage institutions. Perhaps the work of the VFC can offer some inspiration and insights as ARLIS/NA develops a new strategic plan. The group’s intended audience includes anyone working in higher education, particularly in the humanities: students, staff “of all kinds, including custodial staff, maintenance workers…librarians…and all contingent or precariously-employed workers.”