Emerson Collective

Art & Creativity

Portraits of 2020

Documenting the varied experiences of Americans through the perspectives of diverse photographers, reflecting the America they see. Each image transports us to a different part of our country, providing us with the gift of proximity during a time when it’s been difficult to travel.
Dial Fellows

What if we democratized access to clean energy?

Solar entrepreneur Steph Speirs explains why clean, solar energy is out of reach for most Americans — and shares a visionary approach to make it more accessible.
Immigration

The Cost of Citizenship Denied

This series examines how our failure to acknowledge and accommodate 11 million undocumented Americans has far-reaching consequences.
Immigration, and Social Justice

The Failure of an Enforcement-Only Approach to Immigration

Instead of creating a path to citizenship for 11 million aspiring Americans, we’ve built a colossal, expensive, and ineffective deportation apparatus that breathes new life into America’s prison industrial complex.
Immigration, and Social Justice

The “Illegal” “Essential” Workforce

When the pandemic decimated the American economy, an indispensable undocumented workforce was left to risk contracting coronavirus on behalf of a country that remains fixated on deporting them.
Immigration, and Social Justice

Scapegoating Undocumented Immigrants Threatens Our Democracy

Justifying voter suppression by falsely claiming that undocumented immigrants commit voter fraud disenfranchises citizens of color; unconstitutional efforts to depress immigrants’ participation in the census undercounts entire communities.
Immigration, and Health

Undocumented and Uninsured

Healthcare in the United States has largely been treated as a privilege reserved for citizens who could afford it; in most states, undocumented immigrants are unilaterally excluded. But individual exclusion has a collective cost.
Immigration, and Education

What Happens When Graduation is a Dead End

Without DACA or a pathway to citizenship, hundreds of thousands of young undocumented people cannot realize their full potential—to our collective detriment.
Internship Opportunity

Introducing the Emerson Collective 2021 Summer Internship

We are recruiting a diverse team of rising college sophomores, juniors, and seniors who are committed to helping communities, are passionate about social justice, and are driven to accelerate positive impact in our world.
convening

Each year, we continue the tradition of bringing together the Collective — leaders, thinkers, and doers who are changing our communities and our country for the better. We call it Demo Day.

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Priorities

A PROJECTED 50 MILLION PEOPLE — INCLUDING 17 MILLION CHILDREN — WILL BECOME FOOD INSECURE IN AMERICA THIS YEAR, A STAGGERING NUMBER EXACERBATED BY COVID-19.

Priorities

A PROJECTED 50 MILLION PEOPLE — INCLUDING 17 MILLION CHILDREN — WILL BECOME FOOD INSECURE IN AMERICA THIS YEAR, A STAGGERING NUMBER EXACERBATED BY COVID-19.

A monthly conversation series