Meeting Points: Imagination and Space for Social Change - Conference August 26-27 in Ottawa ON

Starts:  Aug 26, 2019 09:00 (ET)
Ends:  Aug 27, 2019 17:30 (ET)

Calling for creative contributions to foster engaged agents of constructive social change. Forthcoming conference in Canada, August 26-27th 2019


Meeting Points: Imagination and Spaces for Social Change
share  is an interdisciplinary conference aiming to create opportunities for meaningful exchanges between academics, practitioners and the community. Creative solutions involving multiple stakeholders are needed today to respond to growing tensions in communities and social constituencies around issues such as inclusion, representation and sustainable engagement with ‘the commons’ (Sabbagh and Schmitt, 2016).

Bridging reflection and action to design creative solutions calls for holistic worldviews, engaged leadership and a platform to learn from experiences. The objective of this conference is to offer such a platform. We therefore invite contributions on imagination and spaces that help inform the possibilities for creative engagement and meaningful connections leading to constructive social change. We particularly welcome contributions that address the following themes:

Imagination and Social Change

  • Cultivating imagination: dimensions of the individual and collective imagination; the role of education in cultivating these imaginations; barriers to imagination and stalled development.
  • Understanding imagination: moral dimensions of the imagination; imagination and spiritual experiences; imagination, mind and body; power and imagination.
  • Being responsible with imagination: dynamics of imagination, creativity and innovation; role of imagination in sustainability; responsible leadership and imaginative practice.

Spaces and Social Change

  • Listening to spaces: dynamics of particular social and/or political spaces; social movements and protest space; potentialities in sonic spaces.
  • Improvising spaces: spaces and improvised practices; the role of disruption and risk in building social connections; space and the creative process; boundaries and shifting spaces.
  • Resonating with spaces: conscious presence in shared spaces; holistic approaches to ‘the commons’; spaces for collective leadership and transformation.


Submission guidelines

In the spirit of creative interdisciplinarity, sessions will include both paper presentations and experiential, participatory workshops. The conference will also dedicate time and a shared space for collective brainstorming informed by the themes of imagination and spaces, as well as by the insight emerging from the sessions.

Paper presentations

Paper presentation sessions will allocate 15 minutes to each presenter followed by a Q&A with participants. Presenters can use PowerPoint, a poster format or other creative formats (please contact the organizers for specific details on possible formats).

Submit an abstract (500 words excluding references) indicating clearly how your paper connects with the themes of the conference outlined above.

Experiential workshops

Experiential workshops are designed to enable participants to explore dimensions of imaginative and creative practices and thus gain insight into the intrinsic connections between reflection and action. Academics, practitioners and community members are all social agents whose inner lives are major contributors to constructive social change. These participatory sessions provide opportunities for all to understand differently and more intimately some of the practices we teach, research and advocate. The capability to step outside of the habitual to enter a new imaginative space opens new possibilities and new learning.

Workshops consist of 90-minute-long sessions and must be designed around exploratory and embodied processes. They need to incorporate an aspect of space and imagination and be grounded in a reflection on social and/or community dynamics. They may be built around a variety of outputs (e.g. artefact-making, improvisation exercises, meditative explorations, sonic experiences).

Submit an outline of the proposed workshop (1,000 words approximately excluding references) explaining the purpose and sequence of activities, the expected outputs (including material required if any), any limitations or special considerations for participants, as well as how your proposal addresses the themes of the conference outlined above.

 

Submission Deadline

Email your proposal to PSTLS@ustpaul.ca by May 6th 2019. Please include ‘Meeting Points Conference’ in the subject line of your email.

Conference Organizers

Dr. Cécile Rozuel (crozuel@ustpaul.ca)

Dr. Lauren Michelle Levesque (llevesque@ustpaul.ca)

The conference is hosted by the Providence School of Transformative Leadership and Spirituality, Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario. More information on the conference webpage.

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Contact

Cécile Rozuel

crozuel@ustpaul.ca