By Nat Mengist
We hope this invitation finds you safe and greets you with high spirits!
Near the pandemic’s beginnings, ten friends came together around a dream of crafting a space for creative camaraderie. This strange summer has been enriched by strengthening these relationships and sustaining our dialogue. Upon setting out to open portals into realms beyond the limits of sensibility, we asked one another what world-building might look like in virtual, asynchronous, and digitally-mediated spaces. The fruits of our labors have nearly ripened.
Behold, the Symposium on Metaphysical Enterprises!
We welcome you to dive head first into the weird and the wondrous with us. This free series of activities begins with an opening invocation — Sunday, October 18, 2020 at 9 a.m. PDT — featuring a keynote presentation from Dr. Megan Bang, live performance by Nat Mengist, and master of ceremonies, Dr. Phillip Thurtle.
Biidabin: Midwifing, Between Times, and Kinship in Growing the Story of Other Worlds
Megan Bang is Ojibwe and of Italian decent, a mother, grandmother, auntie, daughter, and partner. She is a Professor of the Learning Sciences and Psychology at Northwestern University. Dr. Bang studies dynamics of culture and human learning, and development with a specific focus on regenerating relations between human worlds and more than human worlds beyond settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and human supremacy. Dr. Bang is focused on cultivating the conditions under which human learning and maturation create ethical geographies of living.
Information about upcoming virtual engagements will be revealed in October. Follow us to stay up-to-date!
With second sight,
AWEstream
Nat Mengist Research Assistant, Learning in Places Goodlad Institute for Educational Renewal - UW Bothell