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PDF version of Conference Program
From the page to the people,
CAFECon is UMKC’s annual winter faculty conference, hosted by the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence (CAFE) — for faculty, by faculty. This year’s gathering spotlights the many ways UMKC faculty turn research, teaching, and creative work into community partnerships and public good for Kansas City and beyond.
You won't want to miss this event if you want your work to travel further than your syllabus, your lab, or your office door.
This conference gives you space to see how your colleagues move scholarship into the community, to learn concrete tactics for translating complex ideas without losing their edge, and to hear from John Kaag and Teresa Mangum on what it takes to do public-facing work with integrity. It is also a chance to find collaborators, ask questions about how UMKC supports this kind of work, and help shape what CAFE builds next so that the university, the city, and the world can feel the impact of what you do.
If you are interested, you are invited! Whether you found this through an invitation or an algorithm, we're glad you did! We want you to know that if you are interested in this work and want to be inspired, or connected, or part of what is next... you are invited!
Learn more about CAFE
From the Page to the People, from the Classroom to the Community
How UMKC Scholarship Creates Real-World Results
Location: Henry W. Bloch School of Management Executive Hall
Date: Friday, January 16, 2026
Time: 8:00 AM - 3:30 PM
John Kaag is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. A leading voice in American philosophy, he has written books including American Philosophy: A Love Story and Hiking with Nietzsche, American Bloods, and writes for outlets such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Teresa Mangum is Professor Emerita at the University of Iowa and former director of the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies. Her work on nineteenth-century literature, aging, and human–animal relationships has made her a nationally recognized leader in publicly engaged humanities and community–university partnerships.
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