In our current political
and social environment,
many of us face circumstances and
conditions of oppression within which we
don't fully understand how to operate,
How to survive,
Find our agency or bring about change.
In order to be effective citizens in
a democracy, we need to be able to
understand what resources we have,
including the ability to critically
read our world, recognize our agency,
make use of our imaginations,
hope and anger,
cultivate and sustain community
and feed our desire for better.
Now more than ever,
as we are reeling from the changes
brought about by COVID-19 and our
governments responses to the crisis.
Questions have changed and how we
imagine our future are pressing.
Do we want to go back to normal?
Could we imagine going forward
to a society more just, equal, in
which human beings and the planet
are better able to thrive?
This module aims to explore the
conditions and circumstances that
foster oppression, our own positionality
in relation to oppression and agency,
and to consider how we move from critique
and understanding towards action and change.
Drawing on a variety of theoretical
and applied critiques, including,
among others, critical pedagogy,
contemplated pedagogy,
and action research,
And taking a critical approach
to reading the concept of change,
this module will explore how academics,
artists and activists have understood
the imperative for change and how
that has translated into action.
We will explore our own positionality
within social structures,
communities and power relations with
a view to considering how we can ask
questions of and develop our agency,
understand the imperatives for
change and the ways in which change
for the better might be achieved.
The module will provide an
interdisciplinary opportunity for you
to work with an international cohort of
experts and practitioners engaged with
analysing and making social change.
Together we will engage critically
with literature practice.
And you will have the opportunity to
design a project for your student devised
assessment that seeks to bring about
change while locating your efforts
within theoretical frameworks of change.
We'll take an explicitly critical
approach to our own positions
in this historical moment,
the status quo, social change and
our roles as agents of change.
Anthropologist Margaret Mead said,
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
In this module we will seek
to cultivate a thoughtful,
committed community of change,
engaging with challenging
questions of ourselves and others,
and supporting each other to dig more
deeply into the questions and practices
that can bring about change in our world.