“Let me carve out this space for us. Let me furnish this dissertation as a classroom – a place of study. We will need an element of curiosity, an element of trust, an element of risk. We will need a place to gather, with some space to think, to sit and to move around. I will ask you to bring your bags, your bodies, your attention, your pens and paper, your water. I will provide material for us to engage with. I will bring in concepts and ideas we can hold in our hands; to touch and smell, poke with our fingers, remould to fit our hands and to stretch out between us in threads and blankets. I will bring in guest teachers; the voices of Paulo Freire, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, Gloria Anzaldúa and others. I will set up experiments in the form of guided meditations, to see what they make possible in terms of study. I will bring my experience, from teaching and from my art practice, as I hope you will bring yours.”
My dissertation Pedagogies of the Unknown – studying for a future, without guarantees is now available for download as an unembellished PDF. For a printed copy you will have to wait until the other side of summer. Any invitations to continue this conversation is very much appreciated.