Advancing social class diversity in Canadian universities

Events

POST-PONED Visceral Violences and Silences within Epistemic Communities: Un/homing Pedagogies of Dis/comfort with Dr. Anastasia Christou

@ShoestringCdn #StringitTogether

www.shoestringinitiative.com

Session Outline:

This session aims at triggering reflexivities through the politics and pedagogies of discomfort, in enabling otherwise silences and violences within epistemic communities, to shape personal and collective potentialities of renewal and empowerment. While grappling with a number of historical power entanglements in academic research, learning and writing, a discussion of intercultural, interdisciplinary and cross-cultural affectivities in theory and practice will be addressed, to explore alternative discursive and experiential possibilities. This session responds to the intensifying pace of research based on cross-cultural studies in the social sciences. These developments necessitate a discussion of the unique challenges of multi-sited research, but also of the challenges in embracing intercultural approaches and striving for meaningful and equitable cross-cultural collaborations in academic research and knowledge co-production. Additionally, there is an increasing demand for social scientists to expand their data collection beyond ‘WEIRD’ (‘Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic’) populations, and this yields a critical need for interdisciplinary conversations on the logistical, scientific and ethical considerations inherent to this type of scholarship. There are some complex scientific and ethical challenges involved in such work that involve: the study site selection, the community engagement aspect involvement, the application of culturally appropriate research methods, a common understanding of ethical practices in research, writing and publication. The session aims to shed light on some of the difficult ethical dilemmas of this type of research but also to highlight the merits of a community-centred approach, with interconnected considerations as central to robust and rigorous research, which is ethically-driven, equitable and with foundations on social justice principles with publically impactful collaborative contributions to such a research agenda.

Aims and Objectives: 

  • Deeply reflect on best practice in cross-cultural research collaborations and intercultural dialogue.
  • Grasp, acknowledge and embrace some of the unique methodological and ethical challenges of this kind of research.
  • Engage in constructive exchange and collaboration with a variety of communities.
  • Understand the value of interdisciplinary dialogue on research principles and practices.
  • Appreciate the transformative pedagogic possibilities of feminist, intersectional and social justice driven research and learning in applying new insights gained from the session.

Brief Biography:

Dr Anastasia Christou is Associate Professor of Sociology at Middlesex University, London, UK and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Anastasia is a long-term committed academic activist, trade unionist, feminist and anti-racist. As an interdisciplinary critical scholar her work is fully immersed in the humanities, social sciences and the arts in the pursuit of a public sociology which is relevant, meaningful and impactful. Anastasia extensively researches, publishes and teaches on issues of identity, emotion, inequality, intersectionality, ethics, decolonial and feminist pedagogies, social justice and exclusions as regards gender, class, sexuality, race and ethnicity in migrant, minority, youth and ageing groups, and, has engaged in multi-sited, multi-method and comparative ethnographic research in the United States, the UK, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, France, Iceland and Switzerland. As a writer and editor Anastasia works across disciplines, geographies and cultures conducting empirical field research and extensively theorises from her findings. Anastasia’s research has been published with University presses (Harvard University Press; Amsterdam University Press), as well as in international journals and she has edited a number of book volumes and special issues, while her recent poetry appears in the Feminist Review, the International Human Rights Art Festival and Menelique.

The Shoestring Initiative

We’re a grassroots solidarity movement creating communities of mentorship, belonging, support, intercultural connectedness and advocacy for Canadian university students from a poverty-class heritage.

Fri, Sep 24, 2021
10:00am – 11:30am pt
1:00pm et
1:00pm ct
6:00pm uk

FREE zoom webinar
Register: tinyurl.com/46srt993

@ShoestringCdn #StringitTogether

www.shoestringinitiative.com

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