As I learn my way around the vertical campus of my newest alma mater-to-be, I find myself thinking about community formation and belonging. I was welcome to attend CUNY events before I was a student there. The last time I did was several years ago. I will still be welcome to attend NYU events even though I no longer have an ID that lets me into its (many, spread out) buildings. I feel more at ease at the Graduate Center, even when I'm lost, knowing that I am allowed - and supposed - to be there. People whose job it is to critique and challenge and help deepen my ideas are supposed to be there. I am forming a close community with the people who will be my future colleagues.
In a bit of an update to Benedict Anderson, then, I think the process of imagining communities is an important one. Some people stride right in like they belong. I'm one of those people, but I often don't have the feeling of belonging unless I have the sense that someone really wants me there. I love the feeling of people looking up to greet me, the familiarity of walls, the sense that everything could be mine because it already is in some way.
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