Category Archives: All Centre News

PaTHES Online Social Meets – Season 4

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PaTHES Online Social Meets – Season 4

Hosted by Carola Boehm, the International Society for Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education organising virtual social meets, where we come together and chat informally about topics around current challenges for Higher Education and for our Higher Education Futures.

Homepage is at https://pathes.org/pathes-online-social-meets-season-4/

SEASON THEME: Colonisation, Coloniality and Whiteness in the Academy

Led by Dr Thushari Welikala, St. George’s, University of London, UK & facilitated by Prof Carola Boehm, Staffordshire University, UK

Season 4 Online Social Meets focus on how the continuing processes of colonisation, coloniality and whiteness are being utilised by the geo-political Centres to create a particular type of ‘global’ higher education. Colonisation and coloniality are processes that perpetuate the hegemony and the supremacy of whiteness within higher education systems across contexts. Whiteness reflects a set of “narrative structural positions, rhetorical tropes and habits of perception” (Dyer, 1997, p. 12) that enable power structures to continue different forms of coloniality of knowing within higher education institutions, despite the absence of white bodies (Shahjahan and Edwards, 2021).

Audre Lorde (2007) identifies whiteness as a mythical norm that enforces the supremacy of whiteness over others’ life and thought, maintaining the core of white dominance brought on by colonization and enslavement. Whiteness, as the colonial superstructure (Quijano, 2000), operates within current higher education under the guise of global university rankings, globalisation, internationalisation and projects on decolonisation and inclusion, shaping our social and educational imaginary and futurity through colonial ontologies and epistemologies (Christian, 2019).  

The global higher education magnifies white supremacy through racial neo-liberalisation, capitalism and competition, constructing particular values and beliefs about what is meant by learning, teaching and Being human. In question here is, how the often invisible and uncontested whiteness moulds the social- cultural and intellectual imaginaries within higher education and their impact on the process of maintaining and continuing the coloniality of knowing, supressing alternative ways of perceiving the world.

References

Christian, M. (2019). A Global Critical Race and Racism Framework: Racial Entanglements and Deep and Malleable Whiteness. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 2019, 5(2) 169–185

Dyer, R. (1997). White. Routledge.

Lorde, A. (2007). An Open Letter to Mary Daly, in Sister Outsider. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press, pp.57-62.

Quijano, A. (2000). Coloniality of power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America. Nepantla: Views from South, 1(3), 533–580.

Shahjahan, R.  A. and Edwards, K. T. (2021). Whiteness as futurity and globalization of higher education, Higher Education 10.1007/s10734-021-00702-x

For your time zone check on https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/

Friday                15/10/2021                   4.30pm-5.30pm (BST, UK Time)   LINK

Friday                22/10/2021                   4.30pm-5.30pm (BST, UK Time) 

Thursday (!)      28/10/2021                   4.30pm-5.30pm (BST, UK Time)

Friday                05/11/2021                   4.30pm-5.30pm (BST, UK Time)

Friday                12/11/2021                   4.30pm-5.30pm (BST, UK Time)

 

Beyond Preservation

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Endangered Ceramic Skills Symposium

Saturday 16 October 2021, 9am to 5pm
Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

Bethesda Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent ST1 3DW

Beyond Preservation: re-evaluating Intangible Cultural Heritage in the UK Ceramic Industry

Global economics and advances in automation technology have radically
transformed the landscape of the UK’s ceramic industry in recent decades.
Whilst these transitions have facilitated greater productivity, once
commonplace skills associated with ceramic manufacture have now been
displaced, threatening the continuation of much traditional knowledge.
Should such practices, deemed outmoded or economically unviable for
contemporary ceramic production be simply relegated to history or the
trails of heritage tourism? What value is there in safeguarding this
knowledge for the future? How can traditional practices be revived through
new modes of thinking and creativity in a digital age?


This symposium builds upon these questions, and highlights specialist
skills at significant risk of being lost from the industry, surveyed through
recent research for the Heritage Craft Association’s Red List of Endangered
Crafts. Making particular reference to North Staffordshire’s intangible
cultural heritage*, scholars together with former employees and current
representatives from the ceramics industry, will explore a variety of
perspectives concerning a re-evaluation of the industrial crafts and their
revitalisation through contemporary exchange and adaptation.


Although the symposium will be taking place within a cultural event, it will
discuss ways to connect with the local community beyond cultural
institutions, so that they can develop, engage and participate in ‘their’
intangible heritage. It is hoped that this event will introduce new ways of
valuing industrial ceramics skills that are not influenced by the immutable
heritage discourse of experts, by facilitating those that were and are still
involved in the industry to articulate the value of their own heritage.

More details at https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/files/2021/10/Beyond-Preservation-programme-v1.5.pdf

 

 

Staffordshire University Arts Collection Exhibition

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Staffordshire University Arts Collection

Our Fine Arts department has the pleasure of inviting you to the ‘Staffordshire University Arts Collection Exhibition’ and an exhibition of two of our MAns Fine Art students ‘ Loss of information’

The Staffordshire University Art Collection exhibition showcases some of the work from the University Arts Collection in the Cadman Fine Art Space, featuring the work of past students, staff and even some of our current technical team. Michael Branthwaite and Fine Art Students Eve Travis and Lorna Lakin have been combing through the collection gathering the names and dates and creating a new archive of the collection. To extend their life, and find new locations to share this diverse range of artworks, this exhibition will allow university staff to ‘loan’ artworks from the collection, they will then be installed in their new location and recorded in the archive. As well as the physical collection there is also an entire slide collection and degree show catalogues stretching back to the 1980’s. This project is very much the beginning of a longer-term ambition to track the history of Fine Art at Staffordshire University back to its inception at the Bartlem School of Art in the early 1900’s.

How it works, firstly please come and enjoy the exhibition! 10-17:00 22-25th September. On the 28th September you are welcome to the closing event 17:00-18:30 to enjoy some refreshments as well as the MAns exhibition. At the event we will be on-hand to take details of the work University staff want to loan and will then work with estates to have it brought to you and installed.. ( We will need full name, email and a room number.)

If you require further information please get in touch with: M.branthwaite@staffs.ac.uk

 

Staffordshire University Arts Collection

2022 Communities and Communication Conference: Call for Papers

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The theme for this year is: Diverse Voices.

The deadline for submissions is FRIDAY 17th DECEMBER
2021.

Conference website is at https://filmfreeway.com/Communitesandcommunication

This year we are expanding the range of accepted submissions to artworks, performance, video submission, and other non-conventional forms.

Potential Topics:

  1. Representation
  2. Local vs global
  3. Crossing boundaries 
  4. Accessibility
  5. Platforms for dissemination
  6. Collective voice
  7. Art as activism 
  8. Quiet voices

The need for Diverse Voices’ inclusion into the conversation on communities and communication has never been more urgent. Connecting communities only makes sense when a variety of experiences share the stage in a respectful and engaging way, building a network of support and understanding between disciplines and different forms of expression. Building upon the success of last year’s edition, we are excited to invite participants from around the globe to engage in the discussion, in the hope for a more integrated approach to knowledge generation.

For more information and proposals contact: CommunitiesandCommunication@staffs.ac.uk 

GUIDANCE FOR AUTHORS

The deadline for submissions is FRIDAY 17th DECEMBER 2021.

The proposals should include: Title, up to 5 keywords, abstract (250 words), author name, affiliation and short bio (50 words) + if relevant, sample of the artwork/description/still/video.

All the proposed submissions must respond to the brief and be linked, in one way or another, to the ideas of communities, communication and diverse voices. All the creative work must be copyright free.


All proposals should be emailed to CommunitiesandCommunication@staffs.ac.uk
All Audio Visual submissions: https://filmfreeway.com/Communitesandcommunication

We encourage submissions from Early-Career, PhD students and independent researchers and artists. The conference is organised by the Department of Media and Performance, School of Digital, Technologies and Arts at Staffordshire University and will take place over two days 19-20 May 2022.

DanceCult Conference is back

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DanceCult Conference

Dancecult Research Network (DRN) is an interdisciplinary network of academics, scholars and students researching all aspects of electronic dance music culture (EDMC). The DRN acknowledges that, from proto-disco through what is today labelled “EDM”, from the practice of the DJ to the present ubiquity of dance clubs, the aesthetics, politics and cultures of electronic dance music permeate underground and popular movements.

As an educational and research network, the DRN facilitates information exchange, resource sharing and collaboration among international researchers of the genres, identifications, aesthetics, technologies and other manifestations of EDMC. Researching techniques and locales, scenes and events, ethnicity and gender, production and distribution technologies, digital arts, drugs, sexuality and other subjects, members hail from various disciplines, operate in many different global locations, and employ diverse methodologies.

Programme at https://dancecult-research.net/2021-agenda/

More info and registration at https://dancecult-research.net/conference/

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Staffordshire University artists at the British Ceramics Biennial 2021

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BCB returns to the Potteries from 11 September to 17 October 2021 and includes an ambitious programme of exhibitions, installations, events and hands-on activities.

A showcase of work by recent Staffordshire University MA Ceramics and BA (Hons) 3D Designer Maker graduates takes place in the main festival hub at The Goods Yard.

Research staff from the C3 Centre exhibiting include Professor Neil Brownsword and Associate Professor Anna.

Associate Professor Anna said about the BCB: “As always, this important biennial activates the streets and buildings of our city, providing an opportunity to discuss the heritage and future of our relationships with ceramics.”

Our University Press release can be found here.

The British Ceramics Biennial 2021 takes place from 11 September to 17 October. See the full programme of events and plan your visit – https://www.britishceramicsbiennial.com/

Upcoming Research Seminar in Media and Performance

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22 Sept 12:00-13:00 Research Seminar in Media and Performance

Our next online research seminar in the series for the media and performance department will feaure three of our current PhD candidates nearing their early progress reviews with subjects in arts, media and film as below

  • Tim Anderson: “Reconfiguring the Gesamtkunstwerk: Composing with sound and video across media”
  • Francisco Mazza Filho: “Re-Sounding the Screen: Politics and Poetics of Acoustic Territory in Contemporary Documentary Film”.
  • Awat Ali: “Getting an identity for Kurdish nation through cinema beyond victimhood”

Presentations will be 15 minutes each followed by 5 minutes questions. Feel invited to come along and support the students and invite others who might be interested.

Contact Associate Professor Dave Payling for more info on email: D.Payling at staffs.ac.uk

____________________________________________________________________

22 Sept 2022
12:00-13:00 Research Seminar in Media and Performance

 

Catch up up on our C3 Centre Launch?

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Our new C3 Centre is all about new conceptual and critical insights into practices used by individual artists, collectives and creative thinkers who are passionate about engaging, interacting and co-creating with their surrounding communities.

And we discussed theses issues at our official launch, which happened on Friday 18 June 2021. The YouTube video is now available below.

Browse through, skip, speed up or listen during a lunch time break. We also had fun at our virtual pub, which sadly is not part of the YouTube experience.

Included in the video is our introductory panel discussion where you can get to know (some of) us; and our concluding panel debate about why we think research in the arts is so important for our regions. 

As part of the event we had various showcases of our work, which was not recorded as part of the video, but some of the work can be viewed on our website at http://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/ .

We welcome you to become part of our collective narratives, exploring with us some of the questions that we have been asking in our research projects.

Contact of our staff at http://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/contacts/

Launch of C3 Centre for Creative Industries and Creative Communities

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Feel invited to the launch of our newest of our Research Centres, the C3 Centre for Creative Industries and Creative Communities.

Our C3 Centre is all about new conceptual and critical insights into practices used by individual artists, collectives and creative thinkers who are passionate about engaging, interacting and co-creating with their surrounding communities.

Online event

Friday 18 June

4.00pm

There will be introductory panel discussions where you can get to know us; panel debates about why we think research in the arts is so important for our post-pandemic resilience; and we will showcase of some of our work. In all of these sessions we welcome you become part of our collective narratives, exploring with us some of the questions that we have been asking in our research projects. For both our researchers and our partner communities, there will also be the opportunity to continue chatting in our Virtual Pub, which will remain open until 20:00 (bring your own drink).

The C3 Centre is one of the newest of Staffordshire University’s Research Centres. It provides a single overarching structure for all staff working with our creative partners through the medium of arts and culture, in relation to the creative and cultural economy, society and sectors. In short, we are less ‘about the arts’ but more about ‘through the arts’. The Centre provides a structural framework for activities that reflect the search for new conceptual and critical insights into practices used by individual artists, collectives and creative thinkers who are passionate about engaging, interacting and co-creating with their surrounding communities. It focusses on those areas of Ceramics, Creative Industry and Creative Communities that make our region so impactful through its creative engagements.

Be part of our community by registering for this launch, where together with external audiences we will explore research, innovation and new creative insights via panel debates, showcases and online spaces for networking.

More info about our C3 Centre at http://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/

 

Register now at 
https://hopin.com/events/c3centrelaunch?code=je7HlM0HGC9KqG7V6q0g6WgW0

 

New Erasmus+ Project: Digital Career Stories

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Last week, we just held our first European partner meeting for our ERASMUS+ project DICO (Digital Career Stories) running from 2021 – 2023. It will produce online tools, which graduates can utilise to enhance their professional identity, improve their digital expertise in traditionally non-digital fields.

The project has its own webpage at https://blogs.staffs.ac.uk/c3centre/projects/dico-creating-digital-career-stories-erasmus/

Our partners in this project are

  • Turku AMK, Finland (lead)
  • University of Macerata, Italy
  • TU Dublin, Ireland
  • MOME Desgin Institute, Hungary
  • Stafforshide University, United Kingdom (contacts: Rob Marsden, Carola Boehm)

DICO Objectives

  1. Boosting arts, culture, and creative industry students’ resilience and belief in their future by inspiring them to rethink their possibilities and career strengths through digitally supported professional self-reflection.
  2. Providing piloted and researched Digital Career Story method to the use of art and culture lecturers who traditionally work with concrete hands-on methods in intimate workshop environments.
  3. Enabling internationalisation, networking and online skills of art and culture students through collaborative digital reflection and career story workshops in the time where traditional student exchange mobility is not possible.
  4. Intensifying the collaboration of the participating educational organisations in the field of pedagogical art and media based online methods.

And we have had already a fun first meeting where we got to know our partners, both in person and in their digital form!

More info, please contact Rob Marsden or Carola Boehm.