The GUTI SAN (dream seed) Film Festival is an annual event that emerged from the Ecoversities Publications initiative as a way of celebrating the diversity of films and podcasts that share stories of learning otherwise across the Alliance. In this first session, we will hear from Alessandra and Nikolay, artists and curators with Firefly Frequencies, Franco, weaver with REEVO, an alternative education network and audiovisual library and Doerte, co-editor of a special edition of the Journal of Embodied Research – a peer-reviewed, open access, academic journal to focus on the dissemination of embodied knowledge through video.
Institutionalized schooling leaves an imprint of largely unconscious habits, most of which are dysfunctional and self-limiting. In this session, Charles Eisenstein and Marie Goodwin will illuminate some of the common “habits of schooling” through discussion and stories. We will then lead a short process in small groups to help excavate how these habits show up in large and small ways in our lives.
Are you looking for ways to strengthen your ability to navigate conflict with creativity and flair? Join us for Playing with Conflict, a unique workshop that will help you understand the dynamics of conflict and how to intentionally weave play into a conflict process to deepen dialogue, honesty, vulnerability and trust. Through interactive exercises, case studies and group discussions, we’ll explore how entering the play space while in conflict supports our true emotions to come out, our nervous systems to regulate, and opens our co-creativity to find pathways forward together. Don’t miss this opportunity to re-imagine and renew your relationship to conflict, opening up inumerable pathways for growth and discovery.
In addition to learning more about Ecoversities Publications and Audiovisual Circle, we will hear from three authors that recently submitted comissioned publications. They will share about their recent work and process.
The breath, the emotions, the thoughts and the energy are all connected, it is enough to alter one for All to change accordingly, breath-work is about learning and practicing, to free our breath, we do so by first observing the breath, where is it constricted, how is it flowing, and then working with intentional, powerful and connected inhales and exhales to free it.
Modern culture’s education places the highest value on understanding and on knowing. People go to school so that they know how to do something. But this does not work in an alive life, because life, by nature, is unpredictable, unknowable. What if you could create, discover, collaborate, and learn from the unknown?
Creating “Buen Vivir” in a De-Industrialized Small Farm Future
Since the turn of the last century humans have been building communities structured on technological and industrial practices that are steadily destroying the ecosystems that support life on the planet. “Regrotopia” is an alternative vision that supports the re-emergence of community living focused on eco-sosical regeneration and restoration.
In this presentation Liora Adler will share from her 50 years of experience in simple living practices that demonstrate how we can glide into a transition bak to “buen vivir” (good living) while continuing to do the needed world work of community building and ecosystem restoration.
Real education is so much more than just acquiring knowledge and information through a formal system like mainstream schools, universities, or online courses. If this is all you have experienced though, how can you support your child/ren in following their own individual learning path? We will discuss this and so much more, hopefully shedding some light on this complex question.
There are different models/experimentation of learning in the world now, apart from the schooling system. Many organizations and individuals are designing it, experimenting and refining it. Still, it is not able to penetrate or challenge the schooling system. This will be an open discussion so we can explore this together!
Since Nov 2019 I have hosted the Time Zone, an arts based research lab studying the nature of Time and Temporality. The Time Zone is a radical deschooling experiment that brings post graduate level interdisciplinary study into a playful, generative community where everyone feels welcome and intelligent. I would love to share our pedagogical model, our story and have participants play with the techniques we’ve developed. A 1hr and 45min workshop.
EcoGathering: The Emergence of a Collaborative Learning Network
EcoGather is a collaborative learning network dedicated to the vitality of ecosystems, the change-competence of communities, and the reorganization of economies to prioritize wellbeing. It applies the principles of cosmolocalism – small, local, open, connected – to education, enabling communities to learn from and transform our relationships with each other, the rest of the natural world, and life itself. Over the past two years, communities in Vermont, Colorado, Puerto Rico, India, and Bhutan have nurtured EcoGather from an inspiring concept to a richly populated learning digital platform full of learning tools designed to foster tangible application in the very real places we inhabit. We want people to access EcoGather courses, put the lessons to work in their homeplaces, and come back often to share the lessons gleaned from their experiences, as well as to inspire and fortify each other. In this way, we believe we can resource and connect communities capable of coping with collapse and living into humanity’s “sequel” guided by ecological knowledge and relational ethics. EcoGather has taken philanthropic support and turned it into educational resources that can be shared widely, but we must also figure out ways to sustain the staffing that keeps it all fresh, facilitates community, and maintains the quality of the learning experience. This session will introduce EcoGather, share some of what we’ve learned in our initial stages of creation, and invite participants to suggest and explore possible decolonial and transactional access models that foster regenerative engagement.
From recentering knowledge systems of indigenous peoples in Canada, to ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ student protests in South Africa, and ‘Why is my curriculum white?’ campaigns in the United Kingdom, ‘decolonising’ can mean a variety of things. This is especially true when accounting for people’s different experiences of colonialism and continuing neo-colonial influences in our day and age. We are at a crucial moment where “digitalisation” of education is becoming almost inevitable, loaded with a colonial history similar to, albeit more complex, than the modern schooling moment.
In this workshop, we aim to unpack the coloniality embedded in our experiences with educational technologies’ offerings. We define Edtech as more than just a product or a service. It is a process comprehensive of underlying values, mindsets, philosophies, ways of knowing, relating and emoting and prescribed pathways for nations. We intend to offer a framework that supports you to critically analyse the actors and systems which educational technologies are embedded in, asking questions such as “by whom?”, “for whom?”, “who benefits?” and “what are the hidden agendas?”. Further, we would like to hold a space for re-storying digital technologies, collectively inquiring into: how can we hack such technologies to serve our aims of decolonisation?
The Work in the Ruins – sharing the journey that has led from creating the Dark Mountain Project to a school called HOME and my new book, At Work in the Ruins: Finding Our Place in the Time of Science, Climate Change, Pandemics & All the Other Emergencies. This session will take the form of a short talk followed by a time for questions and reflections.
Autonomy and Authenticity: How to Learn from Children Jinan K.B.
An exploration into why the adults must stop toying with children and do nothing parenting (this includes all adults who engage with children). Jinan describes himself as a victim of modernity, conditioned to learn the word instead of the world, attempting to recover with the help of the illiterates, children and Nature.
“Schooling Beliefs: the hetero-directed and conventional education that still lives within you” is the title of my new book, which is now both in Portuguese and in English. In this session, I’m going to share a brief presentation about the book and then host an open conversation about its content.
In this session we will here from leaders that are connected to different Ecoversities in the Asian region. Including HIRAYA, TDU (Tekisen Democratic University) and others.
Why is it becoming increasingly urgent that we Re-Design Universities? What are ways that different people from different contexts are Re-Designing University? What is needed for Re-Designing University? How can we do this together?
Biocentric Audiovisuals for
Re-imagining Life
Ecoversities GUTI SAN Film Festival
Part 2
Abhijit Sinha, Shafaat Shahbandari, Dilip Jain, Ana Pura, Pia González-Tova, Ulises Contreras Vega, sierra ying allen, Camilo Bossio
The GUTI SAN (dream seed) Film Festival is an annual event that emerged from the Ecoversities Publications initiative as a way of celebrating the diversity of films that share stories of learning otherwise across the Alliance. In this second session, we will hear from Abhijit and Shafaat, producers of the “Learning Reimagined!” a documentary film in collaboration between Thousand Shades of India (TSOI) and Project Defy, Dilip Jain, producer of the documentary “Are mountain living beings?’, and Ana, producer of the short filem, “atenção-eclipse”, and Pia and Ulises, producers of a documentary about their community, “El Semillero, Casa Abierta” –all incredible audiovisual pieces showcasing the diversity of Ecoversities communities of practice and un/learning.
During this revitalising and energising session, we will synchronise our breath: we are far from each other, but we are one, connected by the very same air, for which we fight in our diverse struggles. We will honour the invention of the Việt Võ Đạo: it was developed in Vietnam, in hope to resist the French colonisation. This practice enacts the deelitisation of art and enables self-healing by learning Earth Breathing, Sky Breathing, Drinking the Sun, energetic cleansing, movements for balance and harmony, and elements of the five animals Qi Gong which allow us to connect with the spirits of the diverse characters of the powerful animals. While training, the participants will listen to Ancient Greek hymn, played on a reconstruction of a lyre, the enharmonic tunes of which which were used for healing purposes in archaic times.
We will collectively look at the tension and relationship between safety and discomfort in learning spaces. What goes into making a safe space while simultaneously teaching to transgress and foster useful discomfort, one that builds critical disposition that can change the world? We’ll invite participants to explore this topic through some guided questions and lived experiences. Through writing and speaking, there will be a chance to reflect and share.
Join this session to share with others how can you start your own Ecoversity, a space for learners and communities that are imagining alternatives to higher education.
Food is a central part of our lives. Where does our food come from? Why does our relationship with food matter? In this panel we will hear from people that explore these questions very deeply in their unique contexts. Food is education!
Reweaving Cultures of Connection and Repair Sophy Banks
Sophy Banks and Dita Vizoso share insights and practice from Healthy Human Culture, a trauma informed framework showing how our nervous systems underpin whether we can be open to learn, or not.
What conditions are needed to create healthy learning spaces? We will explore through embodied practices, concepts and group conversations.
In this 2-part workshop Proper and Dan will explore poetry through the lens of spontaneity, expression and impact. The sessions will be activity based and perhaps could lead to the curation of ‘The Poetry of Re-Imagining Education’.
This is an hour session in which we will be practicing traditional yoga asanas and mixing it up with playful body practices. All very accesible, no previous experience required. Just curriosity to explore what is within and have fun. Yoga Nidra
Marina has just released a book on Systemic Management for a Complex World, bringing, among other special projects, the UniDiversity of Kebradas Masters. This panel will explore relevant themes/concerns from the book to provoke and stimulate the “reimagining of education”. Explorations may include, “what is a better world? for whom?”; “how to maintain the integrative health of humanity and the planet?”; “Are all perfect systems utopian or are there current phenomena working?”, among others. The book’s foreword is by Manish Jain—and it’s moving.
The conversation space led by Chévanni is laced with questions and a sense of wildness, for exploring the concept of leadership and the values that shape it. Through open dialogue, participants will examine how extractivist culture and the wetiko spirit contribute to a disconnection from the natural world and explore ways/reasons to shift perspectives towards a more regenerative and equitable world. The conversation intends to gain new insights into the challenges faced by communities and individuals and to build a tapestry of questions to guide us to a space of reimagining leadership and how we relate to concept.
Sound as a Method to Transform Individual and Collective Consciousness Keshav Mohta
Investigating the role of sound to transform the body-mind complex. The session would consist of experiential processes to delve into the mechanics of sound both within an individual and a group.
Artificial Intelligence Tutoring Systems: Humane and Inhumane Futures for Education Zak Stein
Será uma conversa entre uma das maiores educadoras indígenas brasileiras, Mayá, e Maria Agraciada, também educadora indígena que está à frente de um trabalho de empoderamento de mulheres. As duas vão contar suas trajetórias na busca por uma educação indígena no país e como a educação indígena é feita, na prática, o tempo todo, no dia a dia.
This will be a conversation between one of the greatest Brazilian indigenous educators, Mayá, and Maria Agraciada, also an indigenous educator who is at the head of a work for the empowerment of women. The two will tell about their trajectories in the pursuit of an indigenous education in the country and how indigenous education is done, in practice, all the time, in everyday life.
Butterfly Talks
Regenerative Education on Turtle Island
Jeff Wagner, Simone Johnson, Darren Silver, Lauren Hage, Jake Hubley
This guide is an invitation to search for deeper relations, with oneself and the pluriverse, depicting a South-up-Gall-Peters-World Map. In this short workshop session we will explore who are the Companions with whom we inter-are, as well as dive into pre- or decolonial names of the bioregions and the Earth-Beings* we relate to.
La gestión intercultural del conocimiento se concibe como un proceso de sistematización de la sabiduría los pueblos originarios y la construcción de nuevas teorías o ciencia a partir de estos propios conocimientos. Para ello se abordan cuatro temáticas importantes: sujetos colectivos de conocimientos; conocimiento colectivo; investigación intercultural; y, el papel de los sabios y sabias en la reproducción cultural del conocimiento. Los sujetos colectivos hacen referencia a los pueblos originarios como creadores de sus propios conocimientos milenarios. El conocimiento colectivo se refiere a la pertenencia de estos conocimientos a sujetos cognoscentes y que no tienen un autor, sino autores. La investigación intercultural nos indica el camino para sistematizar esta sabiduría milenaria. Finalmente, el papel de los sabios y sabias que permiten la gestión del conocimiento intercultural.
The Reading Rhythms Club was initiated in 2020 by Carla Arcos, Juliette Douet, Senka Milutinović, Arimit Bhattacharya, Julian Crestian, and Julia Wilhelm in the Willem de Kooning Art Academy in Rotterdam as an experimental reading group that aimed to open up texts as a space for encounter and collaborative experimentation. Since 2022, each reading session has been organised by multimedia designer and researcher Senka Milutinović and cultural worker Julia Wilhelm with an invited conspirator in a different location that sets the scene and enriches the text.
We will hold an interactive, experimental reading session with excerpts that sit at the intersection of queer theory, pedagogy, and mental health. As a part of the session, we will have interactive intermissions that enrich and activate the text. This includes playing with different reading methods and an expanded understanding of what it means to read and absorb. During the reading, all tangents are encouraged and every activity done with reading becomes an act of reading itself.
Honoring the Sacred in the Secular Classroom Alka Arora
This deep dive invites participants to explore the role of spirituality in secular educational spaces. How do we make room for teachers and learners to connect with what they hold sacred while avoiding religious indoctrination or dogma? How do we open to interior ways of knowing, via contemplation, intuition, and imagination, while maintaining academic rigor? Most importantly, what role does the sacred play in our collective socio-political liberation?
Embodied Liberation: User Manual for Human & Other-than-Human Movement
An interactive session on distributed learning models. Pavel will present an overview of his work, from Schumacher College, on learning network development after which the group will be embodying practice-led learning in a distributed network that will engage participants in site-based activity, reflection, and collaborative co-creation within an online space.
This is an interspace to play and connect with memories, smells and flavors. An experiment combining gestures and text inspired by each one’s personal food history. After a small dialogue about food heritage and passed-down recipes, participants will enter into a creative process bringing their his-stories to life through improvisation.
Returning to the Elements to Activate Mature Masculinity
3 renowned facilitators of men’s initiation come together to celebrate what it means to be the Mature Masculine. They share their good fortune of being able to hold space for profound healing and growth among men into awakened leaders, loving spouses and life-affirming fathers. This session will be moderated by Amisha, and later edited into an ‘All That We Are’ podcast.
MULAT: Breaking the Blindspot, Diving into Accessibility
The Filipino word ‘mulat’ means “aware, conscious, eyes open”. We wish this session for sighted and people living with blindness or vision impairment to interact and explore digital accessibility together. For the flow of our proposed Individual Session, we wish to have 4 parts
1. Opening Activity + Introducing HIRAYA Collective and VIFAL (Visually Impaired’s Fashion And Lifestyle) group from the Philippines 2. Facilitate a learning experience on digital accessibility (navigating your phone or mobile using screen reader) 3. Application by playing a digital game together 4. Experience processing / Closing sharing
This interactive 1-hour session will introduce an array of tools and frameworks used by YES! in its work with young and multigenerational changemakers in different part of the world. The focus is on ways to bring more intentionality and choice to our personal journeys, our relationships and communities, and the systems we are part of. This session will involve mostly speaking.
What makes you, your community and the world come alive again? What are the careers needed for the planet?
Modern civilization spent the last 150 years destroying the earth in search of progress (promoting what we call deadlihoods careers). So now it is time to make our ‘alivelihoods’ by healing ourselves, the earth’s natural systems and healthy communities.
How can we shift from Deadlihoods to Alivelihoods careers in our schools and universities?
In between Reimagining Education, this is a space to feel – the emotions that are coming up, the body as it might be sitting in front of a camera, how these two planes of existence are interacting. Let’s move through all body parts, with deep awareness, and interspaced with verbal sharing between us, of what is being experienced in the moment. This is not only a somatic experience but also a deep body experimentation, structured from techniques of dance and movement, an opportunity for everyone of growth in their relationship to their body.
“The Art of Unlearning” invites co-explorers to discover and deepen ‘Unlearning’ as a powerful pedagogy for growth and transformation of the self and the world through autoethnographic narratives of understanding of how our perceptions and learning about life can be distorted and can be enhanced through the art of seeing in self-awareness. It addresses the need for decolonized systems of somatic awareness and breath work through a facilitated embodied activity and some discussions drawing from our personal life experiences.
An inquiry into how the dominant culture and economic imperative shapes cognition and education and an exploration of alternatives to education as we know it. The session will start with the necessity of becoming a student of our times and take a look at the atrophied aspects of being that are obfuscated and left out of modern education.
How Can We Use 40 Non-Binary Dominant/Indigenous worldview precepts to restore balance on Planet Earth?
In this session, Four Arrows shows how to utilize the non-binary worldview chart for dominant and Indigenous precepts to re-balance them in ways that can lead to addressing the most important topics in education for survival on our planet. This presentation will be an overview of his co-authored book for which he University of California Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center selected Restoring The Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth by Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez as one of the top 15 “thought-provoking, practical, and inspirational science books of 2022.”
Ecological transition: how, for whom, and at whose expenses?
The decarbonization of the rich, which is market-based and export-oriented, depends on a new phase of environmental despoliation of the Global South, which affects the lives of millions of women, men, and children, not to mention non-human life. Women, especially from agrarian societies, are amongst the most impacted*
The current model of ecological transition is inscribed in the same exploitative, colonial, patriarchal paradigm of late capitalism, ready to sacrifice life on the planet for the gain and power of very few. How to think and act for a truly just transition that protects life in all its forms against extractive neoliberal forces at work today? What are the strategies and tactics of eco-feminists, popular, community, and territorial feminisms emerging today in those territories that are the most affected by the so-called ‘ecological’ transition?
As a base for our conversation, we will discuss some of the points highlighted in the Manifesto for an Ecosocial Energy Transition from the Peoples of the South * an important document that illustrates the dynamics at stake today and their different impacts. We highly suggest reading and circulating it!
Butterfly Talks:
Solidarity With All Beings : Education Beyond Boundaries
Jennifer Browdy, Joulia Strauss, Elliot Bayev, Michelle Pressend
Our imaginations are one of the defining aspects of being human – and yet how often do we give time for truly touching into this creative power? Join us for an interactive session that will create space for listening to and learning from our imaginations.
Poetry of Re-Imagining: Deep listening, Deep Writing & Creative Expression Pt. 2
In this 2-part workshop Proper and Dan will explore poetry through the lens of spontaneity, expression and impact. The sessions will be activity based and perhaps could lead to the curation of ‘The Poetry of Re-Imagining Education’.
How to create a learning environment centered in Emotional Intelligence
How to create a school environment (regardless if you are a teacher or administrator) centered in Emotional Intelligence. Suzette will share daily routines from her experience with Luminare Microschool Dahab, and school wide systems that foster this environment. This will be an embodied, interactive, exploration.
Let go of the outer world for a moment, let your creative side take the wheel and have a bit of mindful fun in the funny. Destress and release tension using aspects of Zen (walking meditation), Commedia del Arte (humor & timing) and physical theater (non-verbal expression.) Develop skillful tools to inject your sense of humor into daily life.
Very little speaking, mostly participant experiential
This session explores the great and numerous knowledge of the presenterʻs Hawaiian ancestors through protocol and ceremony, chants, story telling and an inquiry of ancient Hawaiian proverbs and their significance for 21st Century cultural revival and island sustainability. A great session for all interested in ancient Indigenous wisdoms and their applicability and value to modernity.
In this session, we will be having an open discussion on how artificial intelligence (AI) is going to affect education considering ethical considerations and best practices. With the growing prevalence of AI in education, it is crucial to consider how we can create an environment where AI can be integrated both effectively and ethically.
During the discussion, we will explore the benefits and challenges of using AI in education, and identify ethical considerations such as privacy, bias, and accountability. We will also examine the best practices for integrating AI into the education system, including ways to ensure transparency and accountability.
The session will be interactive and open for participants to share their thoughts, experiences, and ideas. Educators, researchers, policymakers, and anyone interested in the future of education are welcome to join us.
In this session, we will explore the role of bioregional learning centers in the context of regenerative design for entire landscapes. This idea is related to ecoversities in surprising and important ways.
Des-aprendiendo la Producción Audiovisual: Abrazando la Colaboración y Co(i)nspiración
[Unlearning Audiovisual Production: Embracing Collaboration and Co(i)nspiration]
Ecoversities GUTI SAN Film Festival – Part 3
Marco Andrade, Sebastian Melo, Andres Fonseca, Camilo Bossio, sierra ying allen
En esta tercera sesión del festival, tendremos un conversatorio sobre los des/aprendizajes y procesos artísticos de los productores y directores de los documentales, “Mushuk Away” y “Grandiosa Afrocaribe y su Falda Larga”, sobre comunidades de resistencia, arte, cultura, re-imaginación, y desescolarización basadas en Abya Yala.
El Festival de Cine GUTI SAN (semilla de sueños) es un acontecimiento anual que surgió de la iniciativa Ecoversities Publications como forma de celebrar la diversidad de películas y podcasts que comparten historias de aprendizaje de otro modo en toda la Alianza.
How can we re-introduce spirituality into discussions of pedagogy in Higher Education. I build here on the work of bel hooks, Thich Naht Hanh, Parker Palmer and Joanna Macy, among others– as well as part of the book I recently finished, Relationality: Remaking and Restor(y)ing Life, above in which we discuss Spiritual activism as a portal or bridge to effective social change.
This session will be a mix of theory, discussion and practice.
We will open with a brief embodiment practice to facilitate the process of settling into our bodies and the present moment, then we will move into a compassionate listening/sharing circle where we have the opportunity to witness and be witnessed in our reflective process of “what is alive”.
This conversation form is inspired greatly by Parker Palmer’s book, “A Hidden Wholeness”. The main parameters for the circle will be to: listen openly and empathetically- being conscious of any arising judgements of right and wrong or desire to fix the situation; share for yourself- to better understand yourself and gain inner wisdom for your path forward; allow a moment of silence between shares so there is time for the previous share to settle; sharing is voluntary, not necessary or expected.
Espiritualidad Cuir una sesión íntima con la Pagana Suripanta y sus invitadxs especiales [Queering Spirituality, An intimate session with THE Pagan Slut and special guests]
Talk about multiple approaches to the Sacred and listening to the path-stories of people that self-build-walk-inquire about the relation of life-self-commonshares with the Divine. During the session small groups conversation between participants will happen and the harvest we can take from it would be the gift of the session.
Educate, Agitate, Decolonize! Youth Organizer Perspectives on Decolonial Learning and Teaching Around the World
In recent years, numerous young people globally have answered Afro-Caribbean philosopher Frantz Fanon’s call for decolonization when confronting intensifying social, political, economic, and ecological crises. This interactive panel will consider how the lived experiences and perspectives of youth organizers across the Global South and at the margins of the Global North can help to re-imagine education. We are interested in organizing and moderating a dialogic discussion with these youth about their ongoing work that foregrounds various approaches to decolonial education, the victories and challenges they have experienced along the way, and shared pathways forward. This timely panel confronts the widespread co-optation of decoloniality by mainstream educational institutions in order to recenter the continual re-envisioning of knowledge-sharing in resistant colonized communities.
Encuentro de Apertura y Movimiento Río Abierto. Conversatorio y Movimiento
[Gathering of Openness and Movement and Rio Abierto]
Encuentro de Apertura y Movimiento Río Abierto. Conversatorio y Movimiento con Ana (Argentina) y Magdaluz (Mexico) ambas instructoras de Río Abierto. Qué es, cómo nació, qué ofrece Río Abierto. En 1960 su creadora Maria Adela Palcos, re-imaginó un sistema de autoconocimiento y conexión desde el cuerpo. El sistema se expandió por sus beneficios a muchos otros países del mundo (mover el cuerpo expande nuestro ser, habilita recursos nuevos, amplía las perspectivas).
6:30pm ET / 00:30 CET (Feb 27) / 04:00 IST (April 30)
Thousands of grounded initiatives across the world are demonstrating pathways out of the multiple crises we are in – ecological, economic, social. What frameworks of radical transformation are emerging from these, how can they be interconnected to enable macro-change, and what sustainable, equitable futures can we envision based on them? This presentation provides glimpses of answers to these questions, with examples from across the globe.
What does ‘Being Religious’ have to do with the future of education?
Spirituality and particularly ‘religion’ have been largely excluded from educational systems in the name of reason, science, and protecting the integrity of people to make their own choices.
But what is it to be ‘religious’? And how does it contribute to the wholesome development of an individual, and the healing of the world we live in?
New School of the Anthropocene: An Experimental Higher Education Project
The New School of the Anthropocene is an experimental higher education project dedicated to confronting biopolitical emergency through the arts that opened in September 2022 as a collaboration with October Gallery London. I would broach the ethos of its radical part-time curriculum dedicated to the fusion of critical enquiry and creative practice, which posits an alternative non-managerialist model of the student-teacher relationship that might counter the instrumentalism of a neo-liberal “outputs” culture and the market-bureaucratisation of British HE institutions. I would go on to discuss the trans[1]disciplinary nature of its curriculum, which addresses the omission of Humanities disciplines in the consideration of climate emergency and mass extinction through fostering an understanding and reexamination of the cultural narratives and metaphors that shape the human location on earth.
A conversation moderated by Geci Karuri-Sebina with 3 international intellectuals with different imaginaries about reimagining education: Transforming, Decolonising and Abandoning mainstream education systems. The session will set up 3 important questions for today from the 3 panelists and engage the audience in an exploration of resonance and potential implications.
As the stress on our global systems mounts, how do we as individuals and communities respond? Shaun Chamberlin has been holding cohort-based learning journeys that explore the themes of Dark Optimism and our collective need to prepare ourselves for Surviving the Future. Join us in conversation as we share what has emerged from these potent cohorts and how the realities of our times can inform the types of learning we engage in.
Culture shapes education and education shapes culture. Join us to reflect on the impact of educational systems that spread a single view of life, a single narrative of the world, usually driven by colonization or globalization or “westernization”. We will screen the short documentary film “Mental Colonization” and facilitate a dialogue to bring awareness and contextualize this challenge. We will then invite friends participating in education in diverse cultural contexts to share their experiences and initiatives to revalue their cultures.
The GUTI SAN (dream seed) Film Festival is an annual event that emerged from the Ecoversities Publications initiative as a way of celebrating the diversity of films and podcasts that share stories of learning otherwise across the Alliance.
Mountains as Teachers: Spaces of Learning/Unlearnings in the Highlands around the World
A conversation from people learning-working-living with mountains from around the world about how mountains can be the teachers, the medicine from the capitalist – structure – educational system. And how pedagogies are built in these spaces.
The mother can show up in many forms and faces. From the divine to the Earthly, the intangible to being held in loving arms. What does ‘Returning to the Mother’ mean to you? What does Home mean to you? What is your relationship to Home? What is your relationship with school? What do each of these represent? How do they relate to ‘Returning to the Mother’? Join us as we seek to interpret these questions and deepen our ability for connection.