Incite Institute at Columbia University

About Incite Institute at Columbia University

At Incite, the worlds of scholarship, community engagement, the arts, and other specialties unite to ask ambitious questions and understand and engage the social world in surprising new ways. Incite provides a home for unconventional ideas and a willingness to embrace experimentation, even at the risk of failure. We create space for collaborators to pilot novel approaches and ask and pursue questions without predetermined answers. Our expertise is grounded in three areas: networks, narratives, and time. Through network analysis, we examine patterns of connection among people, organizations, and ideas. Through narrative analysis, we explore how individuals and communities make sense of their experiences and shape their worlds through the stories they tell and believe. Through temporal analysis, we trace how these patterns of connection and meaning evolve over time. Together, these analytical approaches help us understand the complexity of human experience—how people shape and are shaped by the social worlds they inhabit. Where our expertise ends, partnerships begin. We recognize that expertise takes many forms and can be found in many contexts. This understanding drives us to look for partners beyond the walls of the academy, where people and organizations engage directly with challenges in different ways, developing practical wisdom through their efforts to transform themselves and their worlds. Incite opens doors between these contexts, building capacity in individuals, communities, and organizations, empowering them with the insights and tools they need to drive transformation on their own terms. Incite Institute is housed at Columbia University’s School of Arts & Sciences.

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