[PeDAGoG] PeDAGoG] Introduction (Rebecca Johnson)

Tue Jul 7 19:38:16 CEST 2020

Dear fellow PeDAGoGs:

I too have been quietly lurking, enjoying the conversations, and thinking about the importance and creativity of each form of intervention that has been spoken to.  I too am very much looking forward to some zoomtime with eachother tomorrow.

In the spirit of bravery I have seen in the rest of you, let me offer a few notes of introduction.   I am a Professor of Law at the University of Victoria (Canada).  My ancestors are part of the early wave of colonists who moved to the US/Canada in the 1800s.  I am part of a team of Indigenous and Settler people working at UVic Law (shorthand for our institution) in a new law degree program that involves a dual degree in Common Law and Indigenous Legal Orders.  https://www.uvic.ca/law/about/indigenous/jid/index.php  The program is just moving into its third year. There is lots to say about it, but a huge piece involves the work of shifting pedagogies for teaching law, including questions about land-based learning, art practices, embodiment and more.   We are all ‘baby-learners’ (building the airplane while flying it?), and are spending quite a bit of energy on questions about how teaching and learning might happen both inside and outside of conventional institutional structures.  I am also the associate director of the Indigenous Law Research Unit (ILRU) at UVic. https://www.uvic.ca/law/about/indigenous/indigenouslawresearchunit/index.php.   ILRU works in partnership with Indigenous communities (by their invitation only) on projects involving Indigenous law (ie. The law of their own legal order, not of the Canadian state).  These projects focus on community goals and community based education, and implementation of indigenous law within the community. Lots of learning on our side about pedagogies of practice.

Much of my teaching and research is within the conventional shapes of law school practice.  I teach business associations, criminal law, legal theory, Indigneous legal methodologies, and Inuit law and film.  The ‘non-conventional’ part has involved drawing project-based pedagogy into the classroom (so that students can work on legal ideas through formats including art, song, food, theatre, and more).  A colleague and I  (the wonderful Gillian Calder) have been working on a blogsite to make those projects more accessible to others (so the students can share the work and thinking they have done through these more embodied pegagogies of learning).  The site is still under construction, but you can see it here. https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/projectpedagogy/

I have been struck in listening to people’s introductions by the common expression of feeling like the outsider to the group, and that is a feeling I share.   I am really excited to be reminded that we are all doing movements along the lines of what is newly possible in the context of our very different placements.   I am honoured to be part of this conversation, and already feel nourished by people’s bravery in articulating the fears, and also sharing stories of what seems possible from the places were are at.

Very much looking forward to spending virtual time with you all tomorrow!
Rebecca

Rebecca Johnson
Professor of Law | Associate Director, Indigenous Law Research Unit
University of Victoria, Faculty of Law
PO Box 1700, STN CSC, Victoria, BC, Canada V8W 2Y2

T: 250-721-8187 |  E: rjohnson at uvic.ca<mailto:rjohnson at uvic.ca>

Traditional lands of the Xwsepsum (Esquimalt) and Lekwungen (Songhees) families.

Co-curator, Project Pedagogy: https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/projectpedagogy/
Co-curator, #ReconciliationSyllabus: https://reconciliationsyllabus.wordpress.com/
Personal webpage: https://rebeccaj63.wordpress.com/

From: GTA-PeDAGoG <gta-pedagog-bounces at lists.ourproject.org> on behalf of Sadia Sohail <Sadia.Sohail at in.boell.org>
Reply-To: "PeDAGoG: Post-Development Academic-Activist Global Group" <gta-pedagog at lists.ourproject.org>
Date: Tuesday, July 7, 2020 at 4:16 AM
To: "gta-pedagog at lists.ourproject.org" <gta-pedagog at lists.ourproject.org>
Subject: [PeDAGoG] Introduction!

Notice: This message was sent from outside the University of Victoria email system. Please be cautious with links and sensitive information.

Dear members of this group,

Let me also take this opportunity to introduce myself.

I am Sadia Sohail, working as a programme coordinator at the Delhi office of Heinrich Boll Stiftung, a German foundation affiliated to the Green Party. We at our office are increasingly engaging ourselves in discovering and learning about pedagogies of ecology, gleaning from the traditional knowledge systems, methodologies and mediums of documentation that people at large can resonate with. We hope to share with the group our experiments on that front soon. Having said that and as some of the other colleagues mentioned,  I am here to learn and gain from the work that many of you are doing.

Looking forward to the exchange.

best regards,
Sadia

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