What role does imagination play in an age when information on almost every topic is available instantaneously? Why do students need to learn to analyze a poem, a novel, or a piece of art when the works of scholars and specislists are so easily accessible? Can instant information actually discourage students from using imagination and creativity to address important issues?

How can we help students understand that the world's great ideas, discoveries, and artistic innovations came from men and women with imagination, a passion for knowledge, and a need for self-expression?

SPEAKERS

Keynote speaker Billy Collins, US poet laureate 2001-2003, will stimulate the discussion as we explore how we keep imagination and creativity at the center of our Graduate Liberal Studies programs. He will speak at the Friday night banquet at the Living Seas Pavilion, Epcot®.

Featured speaker Bob Kealing will speak on Kerouac and the Beats. Kealing is a three time Emmy award-winning reporter and author of two books, "Kerouac in Florida: Where the Road Ends," and the 2008 University Press of Florida release, "Tupperware, Unsealed." Co-founder of the Jack Kerouac Writers in Residence Project of Orlando, his nonprofit charity raised funds to buy and renovate Kerouac's historic Orlando home and turn it into a writers retreat.