Research Archives - Page 3 of 13

16/03/202113/07/2021

New Materialisms SIG: What we have done so far 2019-2020

In anticipation of Griffith’s New Materialisms (NM) Special Interest Group (SIG) starting back up very soon for 2021, I’m looking back over what we have done so far.

I am the co-convenor of Griffith’s New Materialism SIG. The aim of the New Materialisms Special Interest Group is to provide a supportive space for students, HDR candidates, ECRs, mid-career and more senior Academics to explore, discuss, experiment and share complex and emerging post-qualitative/post-humanisms ideas, methods and approaches.

I am particularly proud of the diverse and transdisciplinary nature of the current group which includes members from the Health Sciences, Humanities, Education and Psychology and from multiple Universities Australia-wide and internationally.

This SIG is a fertile environment for sharing ideas, research experiences and synergies with multiple projects and possible papers benefiting from the ideas and expertise made available.

With Sherilyn taking a step back in Dec 2020, Griffith HDR candidate and long-term NM SIG member Janis Hanley has come on board with me as co-convenor for 2021. Woohoo!

I am very excited!

Here’s some highlights of past NM SIG sessions.

New Materialisms SIG 2019

We started out with 13 members in 2019 spread evenly across Griffith University and other Universities in South East Queensland (UQ, QUT, Sippy Downs). After four 2019 monthly meetings, interest in the SIG expanded significantly as word spread.

August 2019 – Inaugural meeting

The inaugural session of the Griffith New Materialist (NM) Special Interest Group came together to support researchers and academics to engage more deeply, critically, collaboratively and creatively with NM thinking and practice. This first meeting was semi-structured with the readings and discussion focus being on: The emergence of feminist New Materialisms.

More details on the emergence of feminist New Materialisms inaugural meeting here.

September 2019

In this second NM SIG meeting, we had a guest presentation by Prof Simone Fullagar and Dr Wendy O’Brien whose book (cowritten with Dr Adele Pavlidis who could not make it), Feminism and a Vital Politics of Depression and Recovery, had just been published. In this meeting, we discussed feminist New Materialisms and how the book traces the complex material-discursive processes through which women’s recovery from depression is enacted within a gendered biopolitics. Within the biomedical assemblage that connects mental health policy, service provision, research and everyday life, the gendered context of recovery remains little understood despite the recurrence and pervasiveness of depression.

More details on Feminism and the Vital Politics of Depression and Recovery here.

October 2019

In this session we had PhD researcher Geraldine Harris share some of her emerging New Materialisms thoughts, approaches and inroads from her research looking at early intervention and prevention strategies for child-centered leadership. This meeting was called Diverse plateaus + visualisations of place-based child-centered leadership and it was a great presentation for many reasons. Geraldine shared some of her unique data analysis visualisations that have helped her think-with, process and communicate the complexity of her work (they were amazing!). We also got to hear about her current PhD musings and emerging NM understandings, as well as tips, challenges and blockages she has experienced using New Materialisms approaches in educational and workplace settings.

More details on the New Materialisms SIG: Diverse Plateus and visualisations here.

October 2019 – PhD Retreat

Our SIG New Materialisms Garden Retreat was for HDRers only. This was a special event. For the NM Garden Retreat, I invited five New Materialist and Posthumanist PhD friends to a full-day group/workshop in my garden where we collaborated to create and share knowledge. I wanted to get out of the uni confines and have the (literal) time and space to work, think and share more generatively and deeply with others – without time constraints or other pressures. The garden provides an alternative ‘learning context’ that deliberately disrupted and displaced traditional notions about academic knowledge, performances, educational spaces, and who is ‘an expert’. Each participant nominated an NM tropic to share/teach the group. We also had time for writing, teaching-learning discussions and reflection. We had a musician friend of mine come to play and stay for lunch and the afternoon (so awesome!). Everyone brought a lunch plate to share and each participant went home with a garden box bursting at the seams. A wonderful day of collaborative NM work.

More details on the New Materialisms Garden Retreat (for PhDers) here.

November 2019

Instead of having a guest presenter, we invited everyone to ‘present’ by bringing a piece of data that ‘glows’ for them – a piece they would like to ‘re-turn’ with and share with some suppotive-critical friends. The idea here is that we are all working on different research projects, with different applications and with different data. This was our last meeting before the holidays, so we thought it might be interesting for participants to share a part of their research with others as a way of mining alternative insights – and to give each researcher some fresh ideas and considerations to mull over during the holidays. It was a huge success and wonderful to hear what everyone was working on, wrestling with and how they were thinking-with and processing. Super helpful and inspiring! A great end to our first year as a SIG!

More details on the New Materialisms SIG: Sharing data that ‘glows’ here.

New Materialisms SIG 2020

Some people are still away in January. February is busy orientating and getting prepared for the year, so we start our SIGs in April after people have had a chance to settle back in at Uni.

In 2020 we had 6 meetings from March – November and our membership expanded to 40 members – not only Griffith and other Queensland-based universities, but Australia-wide and internationally.

April 2020

I had just returned from my bicycles-for-education PhD fieldwork in West Africa and the other SIG members were keen to hear how it went and what/how I was thinking of moving forward to frame the experience as a posthumanist research project. Great questions! So, to kick off the NM SIG for 2020, I presented my project to date. I outlined what I did during fieldwork and some initial ideas for moving forward and putting to work NM approaches. It was wonderful hearing people ideas, comments and suggestions on possible ways to process and think-with all that had transpired. I brought a lot of (actual) materials and realia from Sierra Leone – and my bike – into the session.

More details on New Materialisms SIG: My bicycles-for-education PhD fieldwork here.

May 2020

In this session, we had Dr Lazaroo return to her PhD work (two years ago) to untangle the mess in order to make new discoveries. Her project was: Making Noise: An Ethnography of a Community Performance Project between Vulcana Women’s Circus and People with Disabilities. In this session, Natalie reflected on her early methodology and locates a poem titles ‘Expressions of longing’ which she wrote in response to NM SIG provocations. This return poem captures the essence of articulations that emerged during her artistic collaboration over a 4-month period of fieldwork with Vulcana Women’s Circus to create a community performance called Stronghold, which involved people with disabilities.

More details on New Materialisms SIG: Vulcana Circus – Stronghold here.

June 2020

Our presenter (referred to as X) for this session had just submitted her Griffith EPS Master’s thesis two days before this meeting. In this session, X shared some insights, ‘data’ and narrative moments from her latest research project which was an exploration of workplace sexual harassment on teacher identity. Now that X’s Masters was submitted, she was interested in feedback from the group on what resonates and how she might build the project into a PhD using a New Materialisms lens. Specifically, X was keen to explore how the sexual harassment complaint has its own agency and to get feedback from the SIG on how she might approach this. A very unsettling and moving session for all.

More details on New Materialisms SIG: Workplace sexual harassment and identity here.

July 2020

For this session, we had the incredible Melbourne-based PlayTank Collective – Alicia Flynn, Sarah Healy and Allie Edwards present a session entitled Lessons from the Play Tank: Adventures in playful scholarship. In this session, we discussed enacting NM theories and how to provide a playful and collaborative space to re-think, re-imagine, re-( ) research for others. We looked at using art education and design as opportunities to create workshops that attended to the joys and curiosities experienced while working/playing together in a material way. A key focus was on collaboration, intentionally responsive and response-able practices. And we had lots of fun playing, making and learning!

More on New Materialisms SIG: The Play Tank: Adventures in playful scholarship here.

August 2020

For this session, we had Griffith PhD candidate Janis Hanley take us on a creative and analytical exploration of Milieu, Territory, Atmosphere, Agency & Culture. Using written and visual excerpts from her current PhD research-in-progress on the historical Queensland textile industry, Janis provoked us to consider how milieu, chi, concepts of ‘home’ and atmosphere resonated with us and in our research. We did a number of individual and collaborative activities that helped activate and draw out interesting aspects such as how a piano, political graffiti in a factory and participant appreciation of research diagrams reveal new opportunities. We also looked at how conceptions of ‘home’ feature in our own work and life.

More on New Materialisms SIG: Milieu, Territory, Atmosphere, Agency & Culture here.

September 2020

For this session, we had our first international guest presenter, A/P Tom Reynolds (Dept of Writing Studies, Uni of Minnesota, USA). Tom’s interested in critical theories of writing instruction, histories of popular literacy, and intersections of literacy and cultural movements. He is currently working on multimodality with his students, who are making group digital videos that advocate for issues. In this session, he shared some ideas (and wanted feedback for) how these projects might involve greater NM engagement with both discursive and non-discursive elements. Hells yeah! Did the SIG have some good ideas on how to do that!

More on New Materialisms SIG: Multimodality- digital video and the materiality of academic writing here.

October 2020

For this session, we held a New Materialist’s Writing Party! This session provided time and space for thinking-writing-playing and to shift the focus from ‘academic’ reading and presentations into a different positive and exploratory space. Many of us are hard at work writing alone at our desks, so this was an opportunity to come together, share ideas and get some serious NM writing done. I hosted the party – it was close to my birthday so it was an extra academic birthday treat and celebration for me! We had a few fun warm-ups, a few open-ended guided writing activities, and some research-focused timed writing time. We also had time to chat, reflect and share as much or as little as people wanted. Great fun!

More on New Materialisms SIG: Writing Party here.

November 2020

For our last session of 2020, we had Patricia Ni Ivor who works in Project Management at RMIT (Melbourne) present a session with the amazing title: Feeling success in project teams: Travelling from the domain ruled by the supreme God-of-Things to the fresh air of Sensation and the Ineffable. Patricia explored the concept of affect as used by Deleuze and Guattari, drawn from Spinoza’s Ethics and the work of Henry Bergson. She outlined the fit between the theoretical paradigm of Self-inquiry (Spinoza’s synergy with eastern spiritual traditions and Bergson’s notions of consciousness) and how the emphasis on embodiment or somatic inquiry reflects the yogic basis of Self-inquiry (central to Patricia’s thesis) and more recent theories in social science, psychology and physical movement studies in art and wellbeing. The participants got to practice with one of Patricia’s self-inquiry/meditation exercises during the session.

More on New Materialisms SIG: Feeling Success in Project Teams here.

08/03/202111/06/2021

Worlding: Cooperative Gap-ness

Being an open and inquisitive researcher means I attend a wide range of SIGs, workshops and seminars. I’m open to lots of new ideas. Recently, I went to a feminist research group where a PhD candidate presented their work. The presentation gave me much to think about – and below is a 100-word worlding I wrote that explains why.

Cooperative Gap-ness

Passionate work to accelerate fair and (just) transitions to climate action using a grassroots union of Western Australian youths. Encouraging and political. Using Feminist Participatory Action Research and Cooperative Inquiry to be more culturally responsive, ethical and inclusive. Emotional labour. Green and ‘sustainable’ as false solutions. Extractivism of volunteers. Research(er)ing through-with-and-as ‘storying’. As insider-researcher-activists, I suggest Sherilyn Lennon’s ‘Unsettling Research’. Nicely messy. Critical cusps of Hope. Anna Tsing says hope can obfuscate activism. Astrida Neimanis and Jen Hamilton question hope, turning instead to desire. Tactical gap-ness. Expectant tool-processes of change and reviving neglected knowledges. Wrangling manageable recuperative action.

03/03/202106/05/2021

Women’s History Month – March 2021

Internationally, March is known as women’s history month.

The aim of this initiative is to redress previously omitted women’s participation and achievements from being known by celebrating women’s contributions to history, culture and society.

There are many exhibitions, projects, protests and events run during March that raise awareness for the significance, roles, struggles and issues of women and girls.

So to kick off ‘Women’s Month’, here are three more-than-usual initiatives that are exemplary in celebrating a range of women’s achievements.

Enjoy!

Royal Australian Historical Society

The official Royal Australian Historical Society (RAHS) ‘Women’s History Month’ website page caught my eye this year.

This page celebrates March being Women’s History by highlighting a range of Australian women and the diverse contributions they’ve made to Australia’s history.

What I like about this particular page is that it is inclusive and immediately understandable in what it is trying to achieve. Having a simple photo album-style layout showcasing significant women (with names and dates) makes it quick and easy to get a sense of the range of cultural backgrounds (Indigenous, Australian-Chinese, European immigrants, white) and their contributions (politics, literature, arts, sport, law and many others) over time – ranging from Fanny Balbuk Yooreel (1840) to Everly Scott (2017).

I think it is imperative to not only name the person but also to give each woman just identity. Consider how many times you’ve seen historical male figures of significance. There is ALWAYS a photo of them to reinforce their status as ‘important’ and that ‘this individual is not only someone you should know the name of, but you should know what they look like.’

Including images of women is a political move in this regard. It’s a critical move to shift past erasures of significant women from not just naming them (whereby their name is ‘listed’ and therefore at risk of being yet again ‘lost’ in the density of descriptive discourse), but so that the uniqueness of each woman is also recognised – as well as their name.

Photos are especially important given that surnames are patrilineal (assigned by fathers and husbands) so it is usually only first names that distinguish individuals from others. Linking women to their first and surnames with their photos helps to identify AND personalise these women beyond a perfunctory mention by name in passing. This is what the RAHS site does well.

There are so many incredible women listed on the RAHS – and many that most Australians have probably never heard about. For example: Muruwari Community worker and filmmaker Essie Coffey (otherwise known as the Bush Queen of Brewarrina), or Ruby Payne-Scott who was Australia’s first woman radio Astronomer, or one of Australia’s first great actors Rose Quong, who was a breakthrough given her Chinese heritage during the Australian White Policy, or WWI war correspondent Louise Mack.

If you’re down under or have not seen this site yet – go check it out! It is a great starting point resource to learn-talk-share about incredible Australian women.

Dr. Katie Phillips #WomensHistoryMonth

I’m following Dr Katie Phillips’ Twitter account for all of March.

In an act of radical generosity and support, each day, Katie uploads a different post each day that shares the voices, work and contributions of highly influential, but lesser-known Native, First Nations and Indigenous women from what is now called the USA.

This project was a real eye-opener for me. Not only did I appreciate the forethought, planning and process that Katie applied to make this happen, but it was also an incredibly educational initiative that has far-reaching scope and implications.

Twitter’s limited text allowances meant that each day, Katie provides the name, image and brief synopsis about ‘the woman of the day’ and her significant contribution. I not only learned about these incredible women (which, as an Australian, I would have not have been exposed to), but this approach is also an invitation (and reminder) to keep learning about amazing women elsewhere around the world.

I found myself following up on many of the women Katie posted, wanting to know more about their conditions and experiences.

As a teacher, researcher, creative, and someone with half a brain and a heart, I was impressed by Katie’s approach. It showed a genuine commitment to decolonizing history and better accounting for diverse women’s experiences.

F@*king incredible work!

Dr. Kat Jungnickel – Bikes and Bloomers

Of course we must have something on bike riding!

I’ve previously posted on this blog about researcher-creative Dr Kat Jungnickel’s work which perfectly fits the theme for Women’s History Month!

Kat’s specific interest area is reinvigorating Victorian women investors and their amazing cyclewear. She published a book based on her PhD research called Bikes and Bloomers. Here’s a description of the book from Kat’s portfoilo:

The bicycle in Victorian Britain is often celebrated as a vehicle of women’s liberation. But much less is known about another critical technology with which women forged new and mobile public lives – cycle wear. Despite its benefits, cycling was a material and ideological minefield for women. Conventional fashions were inappropriate, with skirts catching in wheels and tangling in pedals. Yet wearing more identifiable ‘rational’ cycle wear could elicit verbal and sometimes physical abuse from parts of society threatened by newly mobile women.

In response, pioneering women not only imagined, made and wore radical new forms of cycle wear but also patented their inventive designs. The most remarkable of these were convertible costumes that enabled wearers to secretly switch ordinary clothing into cycle wear.

This highly visual social history of women’s cycle wear explores Victorian engineering, patent studies and radical feminist invention. Underpinned by three years of in-depth archival research and inventive practice, this new book by Kat Jungnickel brings to life in rich detail the lesser-known stories of six inventors and their unique contributions to cycling’s past and how they continue to shape urban life for contemporary mobile women.

Talk about raising awareness for previously hidden women’s achievements! Go Kat!

Happy Women’s History Month all!

22/02/202114/10/2022

Mariama and the Addax Aunties

This time last year I was in Lunsar (Sierra Leone) undertaking my bikes-for-education fieldwork.

I often think of what I saw, felt, learnt, and experienced there.

The trip was exciting, profound and challenging.

I sift through my research journal and field notes, diving into them, drinking in the details of memories brought back to life in full technicolour.

So many significant moments that won’t make it into my thesis.

Moments like Mariama and the Addax Aunties singing me in.

Mariama and the Addax Aunties singing me in. Bicycles Create Change.com. 22nd February 2021. — Addax school distribution. Girl-student-new bike. Photo: Nina Ginsberg.

It is late afternoon and everyone is hot. We are in Addax and have just finished a long day delivering a school bike distribution program at the only high school for miles around. We are far from anywhere. It took a long, rutty, dusty trip squished between Kao (precariously pillion-perched behind me) and Ben upfront. I marveled as Ben cheerfully bounced the struggling moped over the dirt road to get us here, two at a time, earlier this morning. He made numerous trips shuttling all the staff members to the school collection point. I admire his skill and grace as he navigates the precarious transfer in such harsh conditions – hard work(er) indeed. It is so remote. There is no way to walk the distance or drive on this surface. Access is so limited. As I wait for the others, I think of the isolation and the implications of this walking-world for the women and girls who live here. Inconceivable. Humbling. Unsettling. I wonder what it’s like for school girls riding bikes here.

After a day at the school, Ben ferries us individually to a family a few kilometers away to gather, rest and await our return transport back to Lunsar. We will be here for a while. As the ‘guest’, I was the first of Ben’s deliveries, but on arrival I see Jak magically got here before me. I wave to him from the other side of the yard. I watched him do great work today, explaining in Kriol basic bike maintenance to the students. He was a superstar. He smiles and nods to me and accepts a drink of water as he collapses into a nearby plastic chair. Ben grins and tells me to wait here and rest: he is going back for the others. No problem I say. He takes off in a cloud of red dust. I look around me.

I see a young girl approaching me. It takes me a moment to realise she is one of the students from the school. She was in the workshop we ran. Attentive and confident, she had shuffled students around to position herself to sit next to me all morning. I liked her bold style. She had smiled shyly at me the whole time. Walking towards me now, she has changed out of her school uniform which is why I didn’t recognise her. Her clothes are oversized, stained and threadbare. A dirty white singlet hangs limply over a patched-together skirt. The material seems awkward on her lithe frame. Barefoot. She looks so vastly different from her clean, coordinated, green school uniform replete with white socks and lace-up black brogues. It’s hard to believe she is the same girl from an hour ago. Her name is Mariama. It means ‘gift from God’. She gives me a glorious smile and takes my hand.

Mariama leads me to a shelter to meet her family. There are many of these ‘family clusters’ around here – hidden, unknown, near-inaccessible. ‘Here’ is a grouplet of three ‘dirty brick’ huts. I’m surrounded by extreme poverty. The huts are dotted around a cleared centre which is the hub of all family life. In the middle is the cooking place. Under a corrugated iron roof held up by poles, I take my lead from the older women and join them around the open fire pit.

Mariama is animated as she tells the women about me. They smile while looking me up and down. Small groups of young children appear and mill around, watching, listening, whispering, giggling. Some of the kids sit on their mothers and watch the braver ones sit near me. An overheated dog snoozes as a wretched little chick walks over it. A rubbish pile smoulders nearby. An assembly line of freshly made mud bricks is drying off to the right, and a collection of single-use alcohol sachets are littered on the left. Flies buzz. Everywhere I look, skin sparkles as sunlight catches diamonds of sweat. The fragrant, sweet smell of red palm oil simmering in a cauldron wafts through the compound. I hear birds calling in the surrounding bush. Clumps of overgrown tallgrass tower at the edge of the clearing and rustle noisily in the wind. The women are clicking their tongues, quipping in Temne, and raising their eyebrows in my direction. They find me amusing. I sit down quietly on the closest stone.

Mariama’s English is good and she translates our introductions, adding explanations and embellishments freely. We chat, suspended in time. Refreshments materialise. We talk about family, life and women’s business. After a while, I feel a shift in the mood. The conversation peeters out. Silence. I wait. Mariama’s mother nods to her daughter, who turns to me with a massive smile. Something has transpired, but I’m not sure what. I hold the moment, and the other women do the same.

Mama looks directly at me. I meet her gaze and hold, watching her intently. She has my full attention. She nods at me then closes her eyes. I watch her breathe. Time flattens. Tenderly and gently, Mama starts to clap. Refrain. Then she starts to sing in Temne. Lowly evanescence. Her lilt is stirring and ephemeral. The Aunties are nodding. The wind stops to listen. Mama’s voice is clear as it reaches out, rising and falling, pouring in and spilling over, flowing between and rippling through. I feel her voice seep into my bones. The Aunties join in. Snoozing dog opens an eye, sighs contentedly, and returns to slumber. The singing is rich and resonating, full of emotion and vitality. My heart pines. The timbre is achingly melodious. I listen, transfixed. After a few rounds, the lyrics change. I hear my name, ‘Nina’, included. My scalp tingles. All the women watch me as they increase in volume and enthusiasm. I am barely breathing. Mariama is singing too. She turns to me with bright eyes – what an angelic gift. The singing is still building. I feel what she is going to say before she says it. I don’t need words to know what is happening. ‘It’s for you’ she says, ‘they are singing you in.’

17/02/202113/04/2021

Geography and Collective Memories through Art Workshop

Recently, I attended a very unique opportunity: a 4-part virtual Geography, Art and Memory Workshop co-convened by Griffith’s Centre for Social and Cultural Research Dr Laura Rodriguez Castro, Dr Diti Bhattacharya, Dr Kaya Barry and Prof. Barabra Pini.

As a New Materialisms community bike researcher working in Sierra Leone, my work is embedded with post(de)coloniality, cultural dynamics, current-past experiences, gender, geography, mobility and space-time-matterings.

So I was excited about this workshop! Right up my (v)alley! (Get it? Geo joke!)

This workshop invited us to examine and experiment with the cultural and political potentials of ‘memory through art’ in geography inquiry. We looked at creative practices, collaborated and had discussions on some key and pressing issues related to our specific research. There was also the added bonus of an invitation to contribute to a Special Issue of Australian Geographer (2022).

In this session we asked:

What does art do to geographies of memories?

Geography and Collective Memories through Art Workshop. Bicycles Create Change.com. 17th February 2021. — Image: Memories Through Art

A workshop in 4 parts

The workshop was structured in four parts:

Part 1 – 1st February 2021 by 5:00pm: In the week leading up to the event, workshop participants submitted a 1 page (A4 portrait or landscape) response to the question: ‘What does art do to geographies of memory?’ The response could be written, creative, drawn, mapped, photos, collage, text, prose, or more. We will share these on our website, and will form a key discussion point for the interactive workshop event.

Part 2 – 4th February 2021, 3:00pm-5:00pm: We attended the keynote presentations by Libby Harward (Australia) and Virgelina Chara (Columbia). These two artists (see below) work with the current pressing issues of geographical research, treating them as a threshold point for their own creative responses and provocations that they may choose to share during parts 3 and 4. We focused on artistic interventions from Southern epistemologies as these continue to be underrepresented in Australian geography.

Part 3 – 5th February 2021, 9.30am – 12:30pm: Each participant gave an informal 5-minute talk about their creative response which they submitted prior to the workshop. (See my submission is at the end of this post).

Part 4 (optional) – 5th February 2021, 12:30pm – 1:30pm: In the final hour, we collectively discussed how to take these ideas and discussions forward as a Special Issue of Australian Geographer integrating some of the workshop themes.

Keynote speakers

Virgelina Chara

Virgelina Chará is a human rights defender, educator, embroidery artist and protest music composer from Colombia. She coordinates the ‘Association for the Integral Development of Women, Youth and Children’ (ASOMUJER y Trabajo) which works with forcibly displaced families and victims of the armed violence in Colombia. She is also the leader of the Embroidery Union at the Memory Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Bogotá, Colombia. She is a world-renowned educator on the pedagogy and power of memory for the construction of peace.

She was born in Suárez, Cauca, which is a region where armed conflict, extractivism and neoliberal development have meant many people, including Virgelina and her family, have had to confront violence and displacement. Since 2003 Virgelina has resided in Bogotá. In 2005 she was proposed as a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

You can read more on Virgelina’s work here (left click to Google Translate to English).

Libby Harward

Artist Libby Harward is a descendant of the the Ngugi people of Mulgumpin (Morton Island) in the Quandamooka (Morton Bay Area).

Known for her early work as an urban graffiti artist under the pseudonym of ‘Mz Murricod’, and her performance-based community activism, Harward’s recent series, ALREADY OCCUPIED, engages a continual process of re-calling – re-hearing – re-mapping – re-contextualising – de-colonising and re-instating on country that which colonisation has denied Australia’s First Peoples.

This political practice engages Traditional Custodians in the evolution of ephemeral installations on mainland country which has become highly urbanised and calls for an artistic response that seeks to uncover and reinstate the cultural significance of place, which always was, and remains to be there. Her current place-based sound and video work engages directly with politically charged ideas of national and international significance.

You can find on Libby’s work here and read more on her project DABILBUNG here.

Workshop foucs

During this workshop we discussed themes of memory, art, and geographical knowledge in order to motivate a creative dialogue among geographers, artists, and activists.

We talked about the key question and looked at how to move beyond methodological debates and how to use art mediums as approaches to bring to light the affective and political forces of place speaking to timely and important issues such as colonialism, climate change, migration and peace and conflict.

There was a strong focus on Indigenous and Southern epistemologies and discussions on how to decolonize feminist research involved with geography, power, labour, art, and memory.

Workshop convergences, notes, artifacts and ideas

I was heavily invested in the discussions, which were provocative, rich and challenging. Out of respect for the content and participants present, I have chosen to deliberately deviate from the traditional blog ‘reportage’ style of summarising the workshop. Instead, I am using a non-linear, fragmented, messy, (in)process(un)complete, more New Materialist approach to ‘throw up’ a few random snippets, thoughts and connections I noted during these sessions. The below content is a deliberate post-human shift from presenting content as if it is ‘right’, ‘accurate’ or ‘makes sense’ to humans-participants-knowers. While some content may make sense – some may not. There are no mistakes or errors in these notes. So for the below notes, you dear reader, are implicated in the reiteration and (re)co-creation of the workshop ‘matters’ ….. here we go!

This story is ‘sew’ important …memory, history and life for so many, but new information for others (like me) elsewhere..truthtelling, invasion, pollution, academic violence and extractivism…The ‘Justice ‘ dept, The Memory Centre, the Power of Memory, parent-teacher-adult time with student-children-learner, ‘education is so square now’, pedagogy of memory, to the teachers: ‘do you realise you are the useless ones here?’… we don’t do it through writing, we do it through sewing and food, they have had massacres in every country, ‘ (Duque) he’ is just the model..creative outputs that help us think about these issues…

Some participants linked Virgelina‘s keynote to other textile protests, work and exhibitions, such as:

Libby shares with us her visionary bloodletting, deadstream and saltwater reflections. Flow. Sand Crunch. Lying in grass. Forms and textures. Listen (more) carefully. Birds-eye views. Film as experiential documentation. Art that moves and breathes. Unexpected. Tasmanian salvaged timber. Art(work)s. lying – lying. Post-colonisation – Decolonisation.

Mike is a chairmaker and researcher. Listening to Mike makes me think about how the ideological state apparatus presents a ‘version of collective memory-truth’ (ie statues & iconoclasts) – that is literally set in concrete (or other material) and associated forms of patriarchal, colonistic (tee-hee..get it?! not now, stay focus(ed), be serious!), political issues that go along with that kind of art …and that the artist is rarely? clearly? identified or acknowledged….after all it is their output/work/….

Mike shares this…… Mae’s Lullaby.

Amelia shares that…………..A millennia of seepage.

A Janet Cardiff work in Sydney…..the city of forking paths.

Eva links to Bangala’s most recent site-specific commission, but there is also The Distance From Your Heart.

The importance of having smaller groups and being able to share our ideas as opposed to the large groups and conferences.

I share Janis Hanley’s blog Local Yarns which looks at critical heritage and textiles in Qld..memory artifacts.

Started with a basket that reps KP and her thinking of the time – enfolding life.

Katie is inspired by John Wolseley – an artist who moves through the ecology to make art.

BI re(views) the memory artifacts produced: Proserpine Ambulance Depot (1990), Proserpine Hospital Outpatients Department (1939-1999), Proserpine RSL Club (1950-1990), and the Eldorado Picture Theatre (1927-1985).

Janis literary maps and remaps the Queensland Wollen Manufacturing Company floorplan(s) with mill(field)work, mill(i)visits, millscapes and milieus. Overlaying Coral’s draft interpretations of Mud Maps. Ron’s List across the ages – staff payroll (50?) years on.

Embodiment -moving through time-space-places

Public art

Art, bike, memory and geography

Institualization of memory – academic violences – uni mapping vs uni tracing

Watch the film: Painting country

Mapping the way? Maps, Emotions, Gender by Mike Esbester ……… WTF!!! THIS WAS ME IN DEC! The link! TConvergence with my thought-bridge(s) as I navigate-share-move with my own Bikes, Maps and Emotions! Woah! That’s a little spooky! I knew this session had cross-overs!

Daphne Backer (Suriname) architectural Twitter conversation

Centraling forms of memory – institutionalizing memory (through art)

It is the official institutions that get the money/funding – not the collectives

Didactic vs dialectic institutional

By the end, I am tired and about to implode.

I might have lost it in the final 5 mins.

Some Emerging Themes:

Contaminated materials and lives + (de)contamination and the materiality of life
Decolonising memory
More-than-human memory (not-human and not-human time scale)
Extractivism and memory

Parts of this post taken from the Memory Through Art homepage.

26/01/202126/03/2021

Know What Happen(s/ed) on January 26th

As I work on my bicycling PhD, time seems to lengthen, flatten and conflate.

Timestamps such as teaching semesters, due dates, and Public Holidays mean little to me as I continue to work independently on my self-directed community bike research.

But today is different.

January 26th stands out for me (as it does for many others): ideologically politically, socially and culturally as a very challenging day.

This is because two significant events occurred on this date that continue to have reverberations – and both of which have a particular link and meaning to me and my research. (Read to the end of this post to find out why).

Trouble in Australia

Where I live in Australia and around the world, January 26th historically and currently continues to be a date on which a number of transgressive and contested struggles have been brought to the surface.

Here are two main reasons society should be engaging with challenging conversations on January 26th.

In Australia, January 26th is a VERY controversial date.

This date is the official national (holi)day of Australia – what many call ‘Australia Day’.

It has also been called Anniversary Day, First Landing Day and Foundation Day.

It was on this date in 1788 that the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove* and white colonisers ‘claimed’ sovereignty over Australia.

Australia Day has been positioned in politics and the media as being a day to celebrate national pride and the diverse Australian community.

But such ‘celebrations’ negate Indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples who were here well before European colonisers arrived, but who suffered the brutal and fatal hostile take-over of colonisers, the legacy of which is still very much alive today.

In recognition of this, ‘Australia Day’ is hotly contested and is also referred to as Invasion Day, Survival Day, and Day of Mourning.

Despite what your position is on this issue, it is important to keep engaging with a range of voices, ideas and perspectives. It is unconscionable to simply reject, disengage or ignore that this debate is going on – such a social issue demands attention and action.

This blog has thousands of readers, many of whom are outside Australia and may not be aware of this debate.

So I’ve put together an initial list showcasing a range of indigenous, academic, educational and news commentaries below for our international friends and those interested in learning more:

Australia Day: January 26 marks a massacre in NSW. Will a cement plaque really help? – national Indigenous affairs correspondent Isabella Higgins & Sarah Collard
The truth about Australia Day – Henry Reynolds (Australian Historian)
The Hypocrisy of Australia Day – Koori History
Australia Day, Invasion Day, Survival Day; a long history of celebration and congestion – Prof. Katie Darian-Smith
Australia Day History & timeline (on the Official Australia Day website) by Dr Elizabeth Kwan
Australia Day: What’s the fuss about January 26th? – Australians Together
Changing Australia Day is pointless – and there is much to celebrate – Dr Anthony Dillon
The day I don’t feel Australian? That would be Australia Day – Assoc. Prof. Chelsea Bond (ATSIS Unit, UQ)
Debunking the myth of Australia Day – Charis Chang
Australia Day – Rona Glynn-McDonald (Common Ground)

But January 26th is not only a day of confrontation in Australia.

*Many of us growing up in Australia were taught in school that it was Captain Cook who landed the First Fleet in January 1788, but in actual fact, it was Captain Arthur Phillip. Captain Cook had been dead for nine years at that point. Just goes to show there are serious discrepancies in the so-called factual reporting and historical educational/news reproductions of this event that needs to be interrogated and revised to be more accurate… and most important of these is the truthtelling, recognition, experiences, and the standing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders peoples.

Trouble on January 26th (2000) in the USA

Elsewhere, this date is also infamous, but for different reasons.

On this date, 21-years ago in New York, American rock band Rage Against the Machine (famous for their provocative and revolutionary political views and lyrics) played on the steps of the US Stock Exchange.

They had a permit to play and were recording a music video with Michael Moore for their song ‘Sleep now with the fire’ (which is about capitalism and greed).

The video pretty much shows what happened.

It is essential viewing and I set it for homework for my students.

Yup…it’s (still) that good!!

Essentially, with several hundred fans watching on, the protest-concert-flash mob-recording was considered so disruptive and ‘dangerous’ that the cops were called in and scuffles broke out. During the confrontation, security made the call to shut down the New York Stock Exchange – a move that had never happened before in its 200-year history…and one that many saw as a successful, direct political challenge to halt capitalism.

These two events are very important individually, but there is a specific link for me between the two as well.

A particularly unsettling link

As a middle-aged, temporarily able-bodied, Australian, white, educated, female conducting research located in disadvantaged communities in Sierra Leone (West Africa) issues of power, gender, race, and ethics are paramount.

As a researcher, I constantly need to revisit my relationality to my research from the point of view of:

Subjectivity: to what degree this research is influenced by my subjective, personal perspectives, values, preferences, opinions, feelings, and experiences.
Positionality: What is the stance or position of me (researcher) in relation to aspects of the study (participants, places, communities, organizations)
Ethics: To uphold ethical conduct and the highest integrity for the design, conduct, activities and reporting of the research.
Postcoloniality is another ongoing tension I wrestle with in my research.

Forefront in my mind is to avoid being another white person (benefiting from) doing research ‘on’ a southern, disadvantaged community – and thus reinscribing the very exploitative colonial practices and not the empowering/progressive alternative my research claims to be.

So on January 26th, I am ideologically and culturally engaged and moved by both these events and ongoing challenges – and the kicker for me is this:

In the lyrics are these lines:

Naming Christopher Columbus three ships The Nina, The Pinta, The Santa Maria, is a deliberate move by Rage to draw attention to European colonisation ‘discovery’ of the ‘New World’ , which essentially lead to the decimation of first nations peoples, cultures, and land.

Although I am not specifically named after Columbus’ ship The Nina (I’m named after a great Aunt), the intertwining link between these two events AND my name PLUS the inherent (post)colonial challenges inherent in my research adds extra complexity and assumed accountability for me based on past-present implications of/for colonization, greed, extractivism, and exploitation.

Such a link is a weighty reminder for me.

And I take it very seriously.

This is why January 26th has an even greater significance for me.

So, I am not ‘celebrating’ today.

Instead, I’m taking time to think deeply about these events (and around the world) and look at who has power, who does not, and to consider my role in situations where social injustices occur.

We should all be engaging more directly, intelligently and honestly with such events.

15/01/202106/06/2021

3 Research Assistant & Fellowship Opportunities

There are many Ph.D. candidates who are near-submission or who have recently been conferred. For these brave souls, entering the workforce at such a tumultuous time is even more tricky with additional CORONAverse pressures.

Where I can, I share news of any Research Assistant (RA), Internships, Postdocs or Fellowship opportunities I come across here on the blog, like the PhD interns role offered by APR Interns working on young war vetrans medical support project or the opportunity to do a PhD in Transport and Equity (with a bike specific component) on a full scholarship.

I have also created some of these roles as part of this blog especially for overseas students, like the BCC 8-week Summer Internship Intensive I ran with the four amazing budding-professionals Sachie, Mauricio, Juliet & Gabriel as well as taking on Research Assistant Nao Kamakura.

This Summer, I’ve had three particularly interesting research opportunities sent to me which I am sharing below for anyone who might be interested.

These 3 research positions are based in Australia and have a good range of topics, disciplines, and locations. I’ve grabbed some key details from each to get started – see below.

It is difficult to find suitable postgrad RA, Internship, Post Doc or Fellowships – so if this is you, I wish you all the best!

1. Griffith Uni Peacebuilding Project: Research Assistant

Project: Local, place-based, and community-driven approaches to peacebuilding

A Research Assistant is needed for a research project: Local, place-based, and community-driven approaches to peacebuilding funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust and co-led by the University of Glasgow (Scotland) and Griffith University (Australia).

The project will bring together the voices and perspectives of diverse actors working on building peace in their communities to share their experiences and advice and to learn from each other. Please see the attached document for the project description.

Duration: 30-35 hrs. Start date: Immediate. Salary: TBD re Griffith PayScale .

Duties:

Involvement with and (networking opportunities with international stakeholders) in:
- collaborative and participatory research
- multiple phases or aspects of the larger research project including:
  - Participant Recruitment
  - Coordinating knowledge mobilization efforts with and to different stakeholder audiences
  - Reviewing and synthesizing literature in relation to the project
  - Participating webinars and note-taking for Focus Group Discussions
- In addition to the above, other tasks that arise may be included to advance the research and transforming practice agenda.

Qualifications:

Strong communication capabilities with proactive attitude
Ideally, in as many of the following areas:
- Peace, Conflict, Reconciliation, Indigenous Education, International Development, qualitative methods (Open to any HDR students in AEL)
Excellent organizational skills.

Interested individuals, please send an email to (eun-ji.kim@griffith.edu.au) by March 5th, Friday by 3:00pm with CV.

2. Australian Parliamentary Fellowship

The Australian Parliamentary Fellowship open to PhD graduates who graduated within the last 3 years.

Do you have a PhD which has been awarded within the last three years with an interest in public policy, the environment, science & technology, natural resources, foreign affairs, social policy, law, statistics or economics? Would you like to apply your research skills in the parliamentary environment? The Australian Parliamentary Fellowship is managed by the Parliamentary Library on behalf of the Parliament.

The purpose of the Fellowship is to:

contribute to scholarship on the Parliament and its work
promote knowledge and understanding of the Parliament
raise awareness of the role of the Library’s Research service
provide a researcher with work experience in the parliamentary environment
and support ECR (early career scholars/researchers).

The Fellowship is of flexible duration (up to 6 months full time with provision for part time or broken periods of employment) in the Research Branch of the Parliamentary Library.

A successful applicant for the 2021 Fellowship would be expected to take up the position in the second quarter of 2021.The Fellow will be required to research and write a monograph on an approved project.

Applications close 31st January, 2021.

More details here: DPS 2021 Australian Parliamentary Fellowship Flyer Download

3. 22 new WA & NZ Prospect Fellows positions

A new post-doctoral fellowship program, funded by the Forrest Research Foundation, will be offering up to 22 new post-doctoral fellowships of 18 months duration, to be held at any of Western Australia’s five universities.

The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in reduced opportunities for recent Ph.D. graduates to pursue post-doctoral research. In response, the Forrest Research Foundation is investing $3 million in 22 new post-doctoral fellowships of 18 months duration – the Prospect Fellowships.

These Prospect Fellowships are open to Australian and New Zealand citizens and Australian permanent residents who have completed their PhD on or after 1 January 2019. Applicants must have an outstanding academic profile, and must provide evidence (e.g. Dean’s list, university or other prizes, publications and other outputs) that they are among the top 5% of recent PhD graduates in their field.

Applicants may come from any disciplinary background but their proposed research must be focused on one of six areas of Western Australian research excellence:

Indian Ocean (to include e.g. marine science and engineering, geo-politics, economics)
Agriculture, food and nutrition
Environment and natural resources (to include e.g. extractive industries, ecology, conservation)
Frontier technologies (to include e.g. space science, AI, bio-engineering, nano-technology)
Mental and physical health and well-being (to include e.g. medicine, human bio-sciences)
Arts and culture

More details here: 2021 Prospect Fellowship Flyer Download

20/12/202026/02/2021

My Thesis and Candidature Review Milestone (TCRM)

This week I am delivering my final in-progress PhD milestone before submission – the Thesis and Candidature Review Milestone (TCRM).

The timing is perfect/necessary/awkward being right at the end of the year and just before holidays! Righto!

What is a TCRM?

The aim of the TCRM is a ‘final check-in’ to see how the candidate and thesis are tracking and to provide a forum for a formative review of work completed so far. Part of the TCMR is to also outline what work is still left to do and progress towards submission.

Like other milestones such as the Early Candidature Milestone Report (ECMR) and Confirmation, the TCRM requires a written report and a 30-mins presentation. The report is reviewed by external assessors who also attend the presentation (with your supervisors and anyone else who is interested and invited).

The TCRM is set up to:

review and confirm I am making ‘satisfactory progress’
check my timeline for completion
review that my work is fulfilling the University research output requirements (like publications)
identify any difficulties I am having that might negatively affect the quality of my research or completion (ie COVID – like everyone else!)
give me an opportunity to share preliminary findings
demonstrate I have been developing capabilities that progress my research goals and career objectives

Preparing for my TCRM

Like any milestone, preparation is a little nerve-racking, but also very helpful.

I kept telling myself: I don’t have to have all the answers; this is a moment-in-time ‘catch-up’; my data analysis is still unfolding, so I can only share as much as I have.

It was really beneficial to take stock and audit my work done so far – it feels good!

For my TCRM, I ditched the ‘template’ format the Uni recommended and opted instead to ‘tell the story’ of the project’s evolution in my own way. It was more ethical, genuine and satisfying to do so.

Unlike my previous milestones, I felt much more relaxed and confident because now I have some prelim ‘findings’ after doing my fieldwork in Sierra Leone earlier this year.

I was tired by the time the presentation came about, so I was conscious not to overinvest. I knew I ‘had this’ and that the project is on track.

Dr Sherilyn Lennon (my principal supervisor and kick-ass educator, writer, philosopher and New Materialist) made the brilliant suggestion that I perform some of my data as the clincher at the end. This way I could give a sense of what I was working on for data analysis. It was a unique and engaging way to finish – and was very much in keeping with New Materialisms and my personality…and the audience LOVE it!!

My TCRM went really well

The external assessors were very supportive and gave me awesome feedback and ideas to consider.

My mum and dad came along for moral support (and because they are genuinely interested) and it was awesome having them there. After the presentation, people were invited for questions and comments and both my parents contributed some very thoughtful on-point comments (as well as being very proud – which was a given). My other supervisor Prof. Parlo Singh said it was lovely they came and gave them a special mention.

I’m not sharing the details of my work here (still top secret) but below are a few slides from TCRM slides as an indicator for some of the content covered.

Hazah! It was good to do and a relief now it’s now done.

For the next wee while, I’m taking some time to rest and recuperate.

Then the real hard work starts: data analysis and write up.

For anyone else doing a TCRM – best of luck!

05/12/202024/08/2021

My Newest Publication just released! ‘The Return’

Bicycles Create Change.com. 5th December 2020. — Image: Vox.Athena (IG)

Woohoo!

Great news!

I am extremely happy to announce my latest article has just been released!

This is not your traditional academic article: no big words, no theory no-one understands and no in-text references.

This piece is perceptive, personal and poignant.

It is only 2.5 pages and is an embodied exploration of what is seen, said, felt, performed and experienced during international travel.

It centres on my return trip home (to Brisbane, AUS) after doing bike PhD Fieldwork in Sierra Leone.

In it, I share some moments of ‘Encountering the Return’ trip that any traveller would instantly recognise.

Anyone who has ever been overseas or in an airport will relate to this article.

I wanted to capture how time, space, place, bodies, objects, movement and feelings are all co-implicated in re(co)creating the fleeting moments that make up our lives.

Grab a copy of it below.

Ginsberg (2020) Encountering the Return Download

I got home 1 week before COVID-19 lockdown, so that was also a major dynamic to contend with.

I’ve included the first page below.

Enjoy reading it over the holidays!

Reference:

Ginsberg, N. (2020). Encountering the return. Journal of Narrative Politics, 7(1), 42-44. Retrieved from https://jnp.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/default.

24/11/202006/04/2021

New Materialisms SIG: Feeling success in project teams

New Materialism SIG: Feeling success in project teams. Bicycles Create Change.com 24th November 2020. — Image: Matador Network

Regular readers of this blog know I am a co-convener (with the amazing Dr Sherilyn Lennon) of Griffith Uni’s New Materialisms (NM) Special Interest Group (SIG). Each month we meet to discuss NM theory, methodology, practice and application. Each month we do readings, share ideas and invite an NM researcher to present an aspect of their work.

This month we were delighted to host Patricia Ni Ivor from RMIT, Melbourne. Patricia is working in Project Management and is looking at what NM might bring to her PhD research.

It was not only great about her workplace and research but also her current experience of being new to NM approaches. Patricia also shared some diagrams she had made about her thinking (OMG – they were incredibly detailed and thorough!). Visually representing the complexity, range and scope of her thinking really showed the evolution of her understanding and the connections she’s made between scholars, theories and key themes in her study. Super impressive!

As part of her presentation, Patricia also ran the group through a self-inquiry activity which was a unique and thought-provoking experience.

This session was our last NM SIG for the year and Patricia’s session was a wonderful way to come together, share NM ideas, but also experience a shared mindfulness activity in a way that was productive, unique and meaningful. We had much to discuss and take away to think about.

A wonderful way to finish off this year’s NM SIG program!

Title

Feeling success in project teams: Travelling from the domain ruled by the supreme God-of-Things to the fresh air of Sensation and the Ineffable.

Presenter

Patricia’s extended career spans teaching, journalism, media education, public & industrial policy reform and project management. From time to time she has lectured in Film & Media Studies and in Project Management. Her doctoral studies are applied research in the development of soft-skills in project teams in the technology and construction industries, especially emotional capabilities, empathy and resilience.

Abstract

My doctoral research is investigating whether an ancient yogic practice of Self-inquiry, repurposed for the 21^st century and focused on feelings, would work in project teams and, if so, under what conditions? Unlike mindfulness or other meditative tools, Self-inquiry can be practiced in teams, is swift in producing results and builds emotional capabilities, empathy and resilience. As a process tool, it has the capacity to be embedded in organisational systems and procedures – just what the project management industry wants and needs but is unsure how to develop.

Seeking a theoretical underpinning that did not skew the research has been difficult: organisational development and psychology, emotional intelligence and other emotional development/regulation theories, neuro-science, meditation and eastern philosophy, social science, knowledge and sense-making etc. each have value, but none really fits the research purpose.

Earlier this year, Janis Hanley introduced me to New Materialism and the concept of affect as used by Deleuze and Guattari, drawn from Spinoza’s Ethics and the work of Henry Bergson. Not only did this seem to fit the theoretical paradigm of Self-inquiry (Spinoza’s synergy with eastern spiritual traditions and Bergson’s notions of consciousness) but their emphasis on embodiment or somatic inquiry reflects the yogic basis of Self-inquiry and more recent theory in social science, psychology and physical movement studies in art and wellbeing.

I am still new to the area and the literature, so this SIG session will trace my journey from hard-nosed Project Management through softer social and emotional skills to non-dual ideas of matter and consciousness. The attached readings are ones I have found useful so far. I’m looking forward to our discussion of ‘applied’ research in New Materialism.

Readings

Rice, J. (2008). The New “New”: Making a Case for Critical Affect Studies. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 94(2), 200-212. doi:10.1080/00335630801975434

Rice (2008) The New “New”Download

Stanley, K. (2017). Affect and Emotion: James, Dewey, Tomkins, Damasio, Massumi, Spinoza. In D. R. Wehrs & T. Blake (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of affect studies and texutal criticism (pp. 97-112): International Publishing, Cham.

Stanley (2017) Affect and Emotion Download