Digital Pedagogies and Access Events
Keynote Presentation and Panel Conversation: Creating “Beloved Community”: Building and Sustaining Relationships in the Evolving Teaching and Learning Landscape1
Time: October 27, 2023 | 10:00 am - 12:30 pm Mountain Time / 12:00 - 2:30 pm Eastern Time
Modality: Online via Zoom
Accessibility: Live transcription and ASL interpretation will be provided
In a post-secondary system that persistently upholds and protects colonial and capitalist structures, how might we (re)imagine collective resistance through our engagement with each other, as whole people, in and beyond our classrooms and campuses? In this keynote and panel conversation, Dr. sarah currie (University of Waterloo) will introduce her approach to and experiences with cozy space praxis, which seeks to destabilize ableism and racism through radical care and accessibility. Following the keynote presentation, Dr. currie will be joined by University of Alberta community members Sarah Auger (Education), Dr. Lana Whiskeyjack (Women’s and Gender Studies), Erin Ratelle (Kinesiology, Sports, and Recreation), and Dr. Fabio Morabito (Music) for a conversation about the value of nurturing relational, accessible, and accountable relationships through and with digital and multimodal pedagogies. We will also create space for community engagement. Together, we will consider how attention to positionality and justice can inform and invigorate community collaborations and public scholarship and represent a much-needed shift in how we relate to each other as whole people in academic spaces.
1The concept of “beloved community” is used by Dr. currie in her social media posts and advocacy. She cites Kingian Nonviolence Facilitation as the originator of the phrase.
Past Events
Panel Conversation | Cripping Pedagogies: Meeting Access Needs and Building Community in the Classroom and Beyond
January 23, 2023 | 12:30 - 2 pm MDT | Online
As educators, we aim to create the classroom conditions through which students can learn and thrive as whole, embodied humans. However, the ongoing pandemic has highlighted the systemic barriers faced by disabled students - and educators - across post-secondary institutions. In order to resist the exclusion of disability in our spaces and communities, we must meaningfully reflect and take action on access through a justice-oriented lens. This means moving beyond simplistic and medical frameworks of accommodation and inclusion and towards understanding our communities as complex and unique in each instance. Now, more than ever, we need to reflect on how we can support and advocate for pedagogies of care and access. We invite educators across the University of Alberta (including instructors, graduate students, and parafaculty staff) to participate in a facilitated panel conversation on access and disability justice in teaching and learning.
- Dr. Jeff Preston, Associate Professor of Disability Studies, King’s University College
- Billie Anderson, PhD Student in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies, Western University
- Danielle Lorenz, PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Education, University of Alberta