University Archives - Page 2 of 8

14/08/202103/12/2021

Research And Writers (RAW) Studio: Our new writing group

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working on a new program for academic writers*, researchers and postgrads at Griffith Uni.

(*I am deliberately not using the term ‘students’ here – a strategic shift in language from a subordinate-learner mentality towards a more peer-professional modality).

During formulation, I called it GAWLERS.

GAWLERS stood for (whatever words work best for you):

G____(?) Growing? Griffith? Gorgeous? Graduate?
Academic
Writing
Language
Expression
Research
S_____(?). Studio? Students? Syndicate?

I pitched my idea to three kick-ass postgrads (Jenny, Bec and Janis) colleagues and invited them to come on board as the Executive Board – which they did! Woohoo!

We then set about formalizing the club and registering it with Griffith student associations. This took longer than expected, but we were undeterred and ran a number of sessions before being formalized anyway. I had contacted 26 students I’d worked with previously and they became the inaugural RAW members.

Internally, we referred to ourselves as GAWLERS, but we needed a more recognizable name – one that was easy to understand what the group was about. So instead of GAWLERS, we decided on RAW (Research And Writers).

RAW origins

Like most other educational institutions, Griffith University life and work changed profoundly in response to the recent COVID-19 ‘educational scramble’.

Soon after moving online in April 2019, I established an online ‘Show Up & Write’ space for students I knew as a way of staying connected, focused and productive. These sessions were regularly attended and participants said how useful it was to have a collegial space to talk, share, and create academic work. In break times, we asked questions, offered support, discussed our writing, and gave suggestions for improvements in a low-stakes and impactful way.

While Griffith responded to COVID and snap lockdowns by reducing staffing, decreasing services, and suspending many student professional development and networking opportunities until further notice, our study group flourished. As word of mouth about our group passed to others, ‘new’ people joined from all over Griffith.

It was clear there was an immediate need for this group and so in June 2021, the main proponents (Nina, Janis, Bec and Jenny) decided to formalise this opportunity and open it up for all Griffith students and candidates.

We call the group Griffith ‘Research and Writers Studio’, or RAW for short.

What we do

We are an online club bound by our commonality of academic work, research, and writing. Our club aims (see below) articulate our ethics, commitment and focus. RAW members include undergraduates, postgraduates, and professional teaching staff who are also studying at Griffith.

Our members come from all Griffith locations, not only in Brisbane (26) and Queensland (10), but across Australia (6) and around the world (6). We are proud to be a truly transdisciplinary group, transcending cultures, hobbies, degrees and programs, ages, gender, ability, locations, backgrounds, and personalities. This plurality in membership adds vibrancy, interest and new skills we would not otherwise have access to at Griffith elsewhere.

Research and Write (RAW) Studio

This group helps members be more confident, productive, and stylish academic writers and researchers.

Our group is guided by three key aims:

Aim 1. To present academic writing and research in influential ways to diverse audiences.

Develop and grow fundamental and advanced academic, writing and research skills and experience through a range of online and in-person opportunities. These include exclusive focused study groups, writing, editing and specialist workshops, writing process forums, accountability writing groups, skill drill sessions, special events and writing retreats and targeted academic skill sessions. These events consolidate and extend transferable oral, written and visual communication skills underpinned by positivity, engaged expression and critical evaluation of information, argument and opinion. Applicable for all levels of study across all disciplines.

Aim 2. To build confident, competent, and collaborative identities.

An inclusive and safe space to share university, writing and researching experiences. Instead of the usual teach-to model, this club moves towards a learn-with approach. Members are X to pursue their own academic and professional goals in ways that are productive, thoughtful, engaged and self-directed. Supporting a passion for lifelong learning through achievement, capacity and mastery. Provide opportunities for leadership and active engagement. Connect members with additional editing, proofreading, mentoring and/or other academic support services if needed. Interaction between Ph.D, Masters, Honours and undergrads is encouraged. To build relationships within and beyond the physical campus by establishing a collaborative and diverse community of practice.

Aim 3. To extend, challenge and share innovative, creative, ethical, and positive writing-research-action.

Provide members with opportunities to develop their own personal and professional goals. Respecting and strengthening engagement with First Nations, cross-cultural, and individual or cultural diversity peoples, cultures, perspectives and lifeworlds. This club adheres to an ethical code of conduct based on compassion, positive change and social and environmental responsibility and action. This club supports members to be intrepid and innovative in their writing and research endeavours to initiate, develop and implement new ideas and projects.

A massive thank you to Janis, Bec, Jenny, and all those early adopters who jumped in to get us started – thank you all!

We’ve already had some amazing sessions and I can’t wait to see where this leads.

I’m excited about this project and will be sharing some of our highlights along the way.

Write on all!

14/07/202130/09/2021

Bike art as education

Working with bikes in creative ways is an ongoing theme for this blog.

So is education.

So it makes me particularly happy when I see these two passions combined.

Previously, I’ve posted on a wide range of bike art projects, like:

This week, I found an article written by Deb West (Adjunct Instructor at The Art of Education University). Deb is a retired art teacher of 25 years experience whose motto is ‘Together we ART better!’ The article I read was Why bike studies are the perfect end-of-the-year project (see below).

..and I loved how thoughtfully she had combined bikes, art, and education!

In her lesson (see below), Deb outlines an art lesson that uses various techniques focused on bikes as ‘the subject’. She also explains the reasoning for each step, ideas for extensions and how to ‘level up’ this activity.

As a teacher, I appreciate her generous ideas, resources, and suggestions – it is all outlined clearly with samples of students work-in-develop to illustrate each technique. So helpful!

Regardless of whether you are an art teacher or not, if you are teaching kids at school, home, or yourself, this is a great activity for everyone.

So let’s dive into Deb’s bike art class!

Happy art biking!

All below content and images are attributed to Deb West.

Why Bike Studies are The Perfect End-of-the-Year Project

You know you have a great lesson when you keep coming back to it, refining it, and changing it up year after year. That’s how I feel about this bike study drawing lesson. I’m always excited to introduce it to my students, and they always anticipate doing it!

Like many good lessons, this lesson is challenging. I save it for the end of the semester in my Art II class, so I know they are well-prepared.

Why bikes?

There are 3 main reasons I like to have my students draw bikes.

It helps develop their skills even further. Although my students draw from life daily, drawing bikes takes their skills to the next level. There are so many details to observe and capture.
The assignment can help build students’ portfolios. Some art colleges require bike studies as part of their application process.
It can lead to scholarships. This lesson can also be a great way to get your students to create a scholarship-winning piece because, let’s face it, drawing bikes is tough! Students have to look, measure, and be exact. And, they have to pay attention to details that often go unnoticed.

The Lesson

I’ve been teaching this bike study lesson for ten years. I’d love to share how to get started as well as some ways to take the lesson to the next level.

Step 1: Contour Studies

I always have students start with several contour studies of a bicycle. These are quick sketches to loosen them up and calm their artistic nerves.

Step 2: Graphite

Once the contour studies are complete, students begin focusing on specific areas of the bike and draw with graphite in full detail. We discuss how the light reflects off the metal and how to capture that reflection through drawing.

Step 4: Charcoal

Finally, students finish up their study by working in charcoal.

Throughout the first four steps, students are encouraged to take photos of the bike. They draw both from life and their photos. This method gives them the ability to evaluate the details needed to make these drawings believable.

Step 5: Putting It All Together

The most fun part of this lesson comes right when they think they are finished. This is when I give them three days to create a composition using their bike studies creatively. I set the art room up as an open studio. Students can create reliefs, collages, and add mixed media into their negative space. Of course, throughout this process, they are considering how these additions will help emphasize the bike work. These works remain black and white and are always a big hit when we display them!

Taking it to the Next Level

You could amp up this lesson in so many ways. This past year, instead of having just one bicycle, I added a few more. Our setup even included an antique Radio Flyer tricycle I found at a local thrift shop.

In addition, I had a colleague visiting from overseas who helped me brainstorm another way to make this lesson even more engaging. Dr. Lexi Lasczik is a mark-making master artist who came to my school to work with my students for several days.

Her idea was to have students use their whole bodies as they drew quick studies of the bike on 24” x 36” drawing paper in sixteen timed sections. We challenged students to complete studies in ten to thirty-second bursts. We even made them switch hands!

It was beyond exciting to watch the students! They were so energized. After the first few studies, they lost their fear of failure and began to realize this exercise could be an amazing learning tool!

Once they completed the first sixteen timed studies, they turned their papers over and did another sixteen, but this time they used ink and sticks and again, the room palpitated with artistic excitement!

In this case, for the final project, students took their three detailed studies as well as their mark-making studies and combined them into a new composition.

I also had them incorporate one color into their piece, and the results were spectacular!

It’s always fun to see how the learning process shows up in the final work. I believe it’s learning at its best!

What objects do you use to teach your students still life?

Have you used bikes to teach your students to draw?

27/06/202128/08/2021

Visible & Valued: (In)Citing Feminist Scholarship

As well as the erasure of other-than-European contributions within research, I am concerned about the (in)visibility and (de)valuing of female scholarship.

My current research into how bicycles feature in West African girls’ access to education has a strong gender theme – and I read a lot.

Who is writing about West African female experiences is revealing. It is difficult to find literature on this topic written by African scholars – and even less so, work by female African scholars and knowledge holders.

Overwhelmingly, work in this area is by white, European males.

But this dynamic is not exclusive to my field of interest.

Female authorship has always been under-represented – in all fields.

There is historical and current systematic bias in scientific information production and recognition for male scholar-authors, (Mathew Effect), while in comparison, female scholarship is still often ignored, denied credit or goes largely unrecognised (Matilda Effect).

The fact that female scholarly impact is under-appreciated is not new.

And this dynamic impacts men as well as women. Feminist scholars have been writing about this issue for decades. There are many reasons for why this is, including some lesser known implications – such as the fact that male academic authors self-cite 70% more than female authors and that when some women researchers adopt birth name AS middle name or birth name-married name variations professionally, this practice has been shown to have a detrimental impact on the dissemination, publication and citation of their work.

And this is not only an academic issue. There are many international movements working to redress the erasure of women’s current and historical contributions – take Women’s History Month or the WikProject Women as examples.

I was recently invited to join a feminist Reading with Reciprocity project.

The Reading with Reciprocity invite was the perfect opportunity to put into action more publicly, some In(Citing) experiments I’ve been working-with exploring how I might better support, promote and recognise female scholarship in my work.

Two approaches to (In)Citing Feminist Scholarship

In my book response (forthcoming – I will link here when made public), I used two approaches to make academic female contributions more visible.

1. **Including first and surnames for in-text citations**

First, I included the first and surname for all female (and other) scholars cited.

Historically, the academic writing-citing convention is to only cite surnames. It looks like this:

Dunne (2018) ………

..………….(Dunne, 2018).

However this is problematic from a feminist POV given that surnames are patrilineal – bestowed either at birth (automatically deferring to the father’s surname) or through marriage (assuming the husband’s surname).

With no first name to distinguish otherwise, absolute supremacy of male linage and masculine privilege is reinscribed and unchallenged. So, I include the first name of female authors to destablise this conventional and draw attention to, identify and validate – female author within the male (sur)name convention.

This works best for author-prominent citations.

So my citations then looked more like this:

Glenda Dunne (2018) …..

……… (Glenda Dunne, 2018).

2. Include the academic position of female author-scholars

I also included the current academic position of the female scholars cited, not just the honorific “Dr.” as is convention.

Female scholars are far less likely to be called ‘Dr’ or have ‘Dr’ attributed to their name, or they are not taken seriously or even mocked when they do, whereas it is unquestionably applied for males in a similar situation.

“Dr.” is an educational qualification for people conferred with a PhD or doctorate, whereas Assistant Professor or Professor is an academic position grade within the academy – it denotes authority, seniority and status.

Far too often, women are note recognised in attaining the academic standing they have.

So, to counter this, instead of:

In this book, Dunne (2018) explores…

In this book , Dr Dunne (2018) explores..

My work started to integrate something more like this:

In this book, Prof. Dunne (2018) explores..

So now, I try to use more author-prominent in-text citations so I can apply first AND surname (see above) AS WELL AS deliberately insert the academic position of the author.

So now my citations look like this:

In this book, Prof. Glenda Dunne (2018) explores ...

This is definitely an unconventional move.

Academic positions can change if the person assumes a new roles or moves universities. ‘Dr.’ always stay the same (if given at all) no matter where you go, so that is the conventional default honorific.

This meant I had to do a little more research.

I had to look up the scholar and double check each female scholar’s current position for accuracy.

This additional ‘work’ helped keep me accountable to the feminist imperative of going the extra mile to learn more about the women scholars I was investigating and is a good reminder to be accurate and ethical in my representation of them.

I include the author’s academic titles as a deliberate push to draw attention to the advanced positions the female academics cited/referred to have achieved through expertise, knowledge and research. The title of Dr is not adequately meritous for such positions.

This is something I have been doing for a while in my academic work (like publications), but I am usually told to revert back to Dr or remove all honorifics.

(Note: I was asked by the editors of the feminist project I was writing for to add a (foot)note explaining to readers the reasoning for using these approaches as part of my final book response release.)

Else where in my workshops, Teaching and Learning sessions, and on this blog I have progressively been using this approach as my default – see for example: A/P Chelsea Bond BAM! on World Bicycle Day post.

And I will I continue to apply these (In)Citing techniques where ever possible.

My execution of these two approaches maybe a little clunky at times, but that is also because we (are all) so (un)used to a particular type of (In)Citing!

This experiment is also a long-term commitment… and a process – one that will no doubt change, morph, stumble, be updated and tuned up as my feminist engagement, ideas and experience flexes and fades, and expands and contracts.

For me, it is the engaging-experimenting-doing of feminist imperatives differently (such as greater reciprocity and visibility for female scholarship) that is most interesting in this endeavour.

Read well and cite well, friends!

31/05/202127/07/2021

My Teaching and Learning Manifesto

I have been thinking a lot about what teaching and learning means to me.

I am entering the last year of my bikes-for-education PhD research while continuing to work amidst a range of significant social, political, economic, health and educational changes.

I thought about what informs, sustains and inspires my personal pedagogy – and I am grateful for the opportunities that I have – and the opportunities I get to share with others.

As part of this reflection, I wrote my first ever Teaching and Learning Manifesto.

I did this to identify what was most important to me – a kind of reinforcing personal statement.

It is a public declaration of my educational principles, approaches or intentions.

It was challenging, revealing and reassuring to do – and totally worth it!

My manifesto has 12 leading principles that encapsulate my current approach to teaching and learning.

My manifesto outlines what and how I co-create my educational passion.

I will update it regularly to incorporate changes over time.

Below is my Teaching and Learning Manifesto (2021).

My Teaching and Learning Manifesto. Bicycles Create Change.com. 31st May 2021. — Nina’s T & L Manifesto (2021)

27/05/202122/07/2021

Educational Case Study. Lewis and Clark Reloaded: The 3,041-Mile Bike Trail.

I was cruising the internerd (internet) looking for some bike-related teaching and learning resources, which I do from time to time … and see what and how teachers and subjects might use bicycles in learning environments – whether primary, secondary or at uni.

Keep in mind, this is using bikes IN the classroom (like to teach core concepts), not getting TO the classroom (which is my PhD focus). Previously, I have posted on:

The week, I came across Lewis and Clark Reloaded: The 3,041-Mile Bike Trail.

Lewis and Clark Reloaded: The 3,041-Mile Bike Trail.

This is a case study is written by Mary Rose Grant (School for Professional Services
Saint Louis University, USA) and it is a teaching resource for high school or undergrad students and best suited for classes like Biology, Physiology, Sports Science, Legal studies. A full copy of the case study is publically available on the National (USA) Centre for Case Study Teaching in Science (USA) website. Or click the link below.

The case study is a handout that has 4 parts:

Lewis & Clarke Reloaded Full Case Study Download

Part I—The Adventure Begins … and Comes to a Screaming Halt: provides the introduction and scenario and 3 questions.
Part II—A Change of Scenery: The storyline continues and provides more physiological details including dialogue and physiological/medical statistics for details and 3 questions.
Part III—A Dangerous Detour: brings the case study to a close and the dialogue leads to an analysis of what happened to the characters. Includes a role-play activity and 2 questions.
Summary Questions: 9 summary questions for discussion and further analysis.

Overall Scenario

Frank and Joe are 24-year-old fraternal twins who share similar interests, including cycling. The brothers decide to attempt their first long-distance bicycling trip, retracing the journey of early American explorers Lewis and Clark to the Northwest. Along the way, serious problems arise. Students review normal physiology of organ systems as well as changes that occur during physical exertion to piece together an understanding of the medical condition of one of the cyclists. The pivotal point in the case is learning that seemingly harmless and legally available substances can lead to potentially fatal outcomes, affecting organ systems already taxed beyond normal limits. This case is designed for use in a human biology course after students have learned about the integumentary, respiratory, cardiovascular, neuromuscular, and urinary systems.

Objectives

Understand physiological changes and adaptations organ systems make with physical exertion over an extended period of time.
Define the term “ergogenic aid” as applied in sports and exercise.
Identify the effects of caffeine on different organ systems.
Discuss the role of caffeine as an ergogenic aid in endurance sports.
Explain the side effects of caffeine intoxication.
Identify potential dangers of caffeine use in combination with other substances.
Practice critical thinking and analytical skills to make a diagnosis.
Examine legal implications of caffeine use, or “doping,” before competition.
Analyze ethical issues of using caffeine, or any ergogenic product, to enhance performance in amateur and professional sports.

I was surprised to see how popular this case study was!

Apparently, it is has been picked up by many schools and unis.

A quick online search showed this resource has been widely used and adapted as you can see here. Below are some examples of various reiterations.

Kristal Huber published her Prezi adaptation which included a few original additions:

GraduateWay extended the original case study to include two parts. The first part was mostly on par with the original case study. The second part is more developed in the role play and has more probing questions:

Educational Case Study. Lewis and Clark Reloaded: The 3,041-Mile Bike Trail. Bicycles Create Change.com. 27th May 2021.

For answers, I appreciate the factual simplicity and directness of student Valarie Parra’s approach, which was:

Educational Case Study. Lewis and Clark Reloaded: The 3,041-Mile Bike Trail. Bicycles Create Change.com. 27th May 2021.

I was surprised at how popular and well-used this resource was. It is well thought out and there are lots of details in there to get discussion and debates going as well as factual knowledge and concepts that in some courses might be considered ‘must-know’ content.

As a bike rider, I prefer to see bikes (and riders) portrayed in a positive light (and not having accidents or ‘health or medical issues’ while riding), but I can overlook that for the sake of pedagogy.

It is also nice to see a more advanced resource out there for adults learners as well.

More learning with bikes, please!

31/03/202109/06/2021

New Materialisms SIG: How to work with and ‘write-up’ ‘data’.

Hooray! Finally!

Our New Materialisms (NM) Special Interest Group (SIG) is back on!

The March NM SIG is our first meeting back for 2021. I’m so happy!

Because we are reconvening after the New Year break, we wanted to offer the opportunity for participants to reconnect more directly. So instead of going straight into guest presentations, we decided to have a writing-process open forum to ‘warm-up’ our ideas, discussion and writing-with NM approaches.

So, in this session, we gave breathing space for a topic we all wrestle with: how to ‘write up’ or ‘present’ New Materialisms research.

We invited participants to bring a piece of writing/data/something you are working on to share.

This NM forum encouraged cross-pollination, stimulate new ideas, spark some inspiration, offered some new skills and probed what im/possibilities might emerge for stretching your NM research writing-data.

In this meeting, we asked: How might researchers who are working with New Materialisms ‘write up data’?

We had two readings to get the juices flowing.

Readings:

Somerville, M. (2016) The post-human I: encountering ‘data’ in new materialism, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 29:9, 1161-1172, DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2016.1201611

Niccolini, A. D., Zarabadi, S., & Ringrose, J. (2018). Spinning yarns: Affective kinshipping as posthuman pedagogy. Parallax (Leeds, England), 24(3), 324-343.

March NM SIG notes

Our warm-up NM writing activity was on: Delicious research(er)s. I developed my Delicious Research(er)s warm-up into a 25mins, 100-word worlding – and this is what emerged:

Delicious research(er)s.

Delicious research(er)ing is an open-ended kitchette of inquisitiveness, capabilities, ingredients and alchemy. Folding, passing, mixing and blending: foundational blisters pop into syrupy-sweet intellectual nectar. Flavour(ful) data fragments over tongues, in eyes, and on minds. Delicious researchers are lightning rods for the unexplained. They stand tall: chins up, ears swivelling, noses twitching, eyes roving and skin electrified with buzzing intensity. They dive deep into salty pedogological soups, spin with umami-rolled embodiment, and languish in astringent-infused relationalities of common wor(l)ds. Delicious researchers are sexy, amorous, desirable and magnetic, heated yet ‘cool’ – and prone to spontaneously combust in moments of exquisite flambé rupture.

See images below for some of our other NM lines of flight.

Spinning Yarns. NM SIG March 2021.
Post-human ‘I’. NM SIG March 2021.
Discussing NM problematics. NM SIG March 2021.
NM SIG collaborative notes. NM SIG March 2021.
NM ‘data’-research-writing discussion. NM SIG March 2021.

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.

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.

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