Exploring Role Identity Across Learning Environments: New Perspectives

Exploring Role Identity Across Learning Environments: New Perspectives
Thursday, September 25, 2025, 12:00 – 3:30 p.m. ET

FREE Registration: http://bit.ly/3Hww6Cw

Program Details: https://invention.si.edu/visit/event/exploring-role-identity-across-learning-environments-new-perspectives-09-25-2025

Program Description: Since 1995, the Lemelson Center’s annual symposium series, New Perspectives on Invention and Innovation, has brought together scholars, educators, and practitioners for cross disciplinary dialogue at the intersection of history, innovation, and social change. The 2025 symposium focuses on role identity — how individuals construct, evolve, and express who they are across different life domains — and examines the narratives, contexts, and forces that shape identity exploration in classrooms, museums, and cultural institutions.

In this online symposium, a distinguished group of historians, educators, psychologists, and museum professionals will:
• Connect theoretical models, like the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI), to practical applications in educational and cultural settings.
• Highlight case studies where identity work fosters belonging, agency, and community engagement.
• Provide attendees with tools, frameworks, and strategies to apply in their own learning environments.

Presenters: Joanna Garner (Old Dominion), Avi Kaplan (Temple Univ.), Eric Hintz (Smithsonian), Nyssa Buning (Smithsonian), Andrea Rocchio (Mariners’ Museum and Park), Shantelle Landry (Mariners’ Museum and Park), Yonghee Suh, (Old Dominion), Brian Daugherity (Virginia Commonwealth), Jesse Lovejoy (Lovejoy Strategies)

Media contact: Laura Havel, havell@si.edu