[-empyre-] the University, outside

[elizaBeth Simpson]

Thank you, Johannes, for a point that I think this month's conversation
begs:
"What if what lies outside the blessings can continue to be productive, not
needing all that blissful legitimacy?"

Of one considers, for example, the concept of "community inquiry" as
described by Bishop et. al, the semi-precious boundary between the
university research agenda and the community learning agenda begins to
disintegrate (perhaps to great cries of concern on either side!) In my
experience such discussions are a usually call to scholars to be more
inclusive. However, the parallel call is for non-academics to claim/demand
entitlement to the means of knowledge production, replete with methods,
process, and standards of validation (that may look quite different from
contemporary academic forms, though no less legitimate). I invite future
respondents on this thread to keep worrying these boundaries and
investigating fundamental premises that are rooted in the defense of "best
practices" but effectively support an intellectual caste distinction. (i.e.
one may insist that certain protocols are imperative for "good research"
but overlook that literacy in these practices is not made accessible beyond
academia.) Further resources of this topic include "Radical Equations" by
Bob Moses, and "Towards a Data Literate Citizenry" by Twidale et al.

Thank you also, William, for extending the clarification of directionally.

Be well,
elizaBeth

Bishop, Ann P., Bruce, Bertram C., & Jeong, Sunny (2009, March). Beyond
service learning: Toward community schools and reflective community
learners. In Loriene Roy, Kelly Jensen, & Alex Hershey Meyers (eds.),
Service learning: Linking library education and practice (pp. 16-31).
Chicago, IL: ALA Editions.

Moses, R. P., & Cobb, C. E. (2002). Radical Equations: Civil Rights from
Mississippi to the Algebra Project. Boston: Beacon Press.

Twidale, M.B., Blake, C. & Gant, J. (2013). Towards a data literate
citizenry. iConference 2013 Proceedings (pp. 247-257).

elizaBeth

217-979-2820 cell

The bad news is you're falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no
parachute. The good news is, there's no ground. - Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

learn about my latest creative initiative:
Art from the Streets!
www.ucpeopleshistory.org


On Fri, Mar 6, 2015 at 3:33 PM, Johannes Birringer <
Johannes.Birringer at brunel.ac.uk> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>
> dear all
>
> >>[elizaBeth schreibt]
>
> Option One‚   Given what you have seen regarding the co-optation of
> non-dominant cultures, whether they be indigenous, politically adverse
> (punk!), or otherwise: *What are the offers and risks of seeking or
> extending academic legitimacy to practices, ways of thinking, cultural
> work, etc. that currently lie outside of the university's blessing? *
>
> Options Two‚  One of the foundational questions of this Engineering the
> University thread is: "What can the study of technology, ethics and society
> offer a discussion about the research university's potential as a space of
> social or political imagination?" *What do you consider to be the
> contemporary university's potential as a space of social or political
> imagination, broadly or in specific cases? *
> >>
>
>
> If one were permitted to jump into this wonderfully set up series of
> dialogue
> partnerings ---   can i just mention a couple of things, somewhat
> reflecting on the Option 1 above -- what if what lies outside the blessings
> can continue to be productive, not needing all that blissful legitimacy?
>
> A few days ago I listened to fieldworker Maria Kastrinou (Anthropology,
> Social Sciences, Media and Communications)
> having returned from Syria, and about to go back there; she spoke at a new
> thing they
> created at the place where I work (Brunel University, London), called
> Researcher Development Series.
> Maria's presentation was: "An anthropologist at war: sectarianism, society
> and energy in Syria," and
> it was a very thought provoking talk, and I didn't quite see what the
> School wanted to develop
> here; Maria's research wound have happened without it, and the war in
> Syria and Northern Iraq does lie outside.
> The researchers presented were introduced as exemplifying the vibrant
> interdisciplinary strengths of the
> institution.
>
> Option 2 might be reconsidered as well, and broadly I wonder (having
> experienced
> how our MA performance program was suspended last September due to lack of
> money/enrollment), whether the space now opened up (after I started to
> hold a weekly "Meta-Seminar/lab in performance and media" open to MAs,
> doctoral students, alumnae, former students
> non students & visitors from outside the university and elsewhere abroad)
> is more interesting as an experiment, and well attended it is; one could
> see it in ethical terms as well, unconnected
> to current imperatives (in the corporate university offering skills for
> employability in sectors)
> and thus potentially more connected to interested people's questions about
> how to sustain
> creative and artistic pursuits. an open university would be open, no? and
> if it's closed
> down, the meta-lab can move somewhere else (potentially other zones
> of conflict) and be fertile.
>
>
> regards
> Johannes Birringer
> dap-lab
> http://www.brunel.ac.uk/dap
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/attachments/20150307/8fe82b4e/attachment.html>