ICGC Community members and their friends are invited to an ICGC Town Hall on April 24 to think together about a question we are currently working through at ICGC.

Over the past few months — particularly since December-January — many of us, as faculty and students, have been reflecting, individually and in fragments, on Minneapolis as a site through which larger global questions become visible. These reflections draw strength from the admirable work done by scholars and artists over the years since the events of 2020 — annotated reading lists, syllabi, installations, and archives.

At the same time, many of our students, especially those coming from outside the U.S., often struggle to find meaningful entry points into the city. Their engagement with “the global” remains abstract unless it is grounded in a place they can read, move through, and relate to.

We would like to propose a curated learning resource collection, tentatively called the 612 Primer.

We will begin the session with a short framing presentation. The conversation that follows, however, is intended to be collectively owned.

The focus of the town hall will be:

How might ICGC help develop a shared “612 Primer” — a set of accessible, place-based entry points into Minneapolis as a site of learning?

Operationally, this could take forms such as:

• places to visit
• people and organizations to engage
• short texts or media
• ways of observing and documenting the city
• stories, interviews, and field notes

More broadly, this is also about how we understand and teach “the global” from where we are, and what role ICGC might play in curating that process.

This will be a fully in-person event in Heller 537. We hope you can join us to contribute experience and insight.

If you cannot join in person, leave suggestions via z.umn.edu/612primer_ideas