[PeDAGoG] Introducing free home university and ecoversities

[Alessandra Pomarico]

hello everyone,
i meant to write for a long time, but overwhelmed with communication and
(re) organization. I echo the gratitude for all that has been shared so
far, and for this space to exist at the intersection of activism, pedagogy,
scholarly and community based knowledge production, supporting ways of
learning within a wider ecology and epistemology.

I'm a curator, writer, and educator. I "walked out" from the Academic
world, although I'm often invited back by those brave enough to attempt
reforming/ decolonizing it from within, willing to gain perspective through
those with experience and practice outside formal institutions. After my
PHD in sociology of migration, and a few traumatic experiences (nepotism
and misogyny, and disciplinary islands of power in Italian universities
where i come from/ high pressure and competition in the States, where I
moved to - I simply did not not have the stamina to survive in the academic
system, especially during my daughter's early childhood, and found more joy
and energy in creating something outside of it.

 With a group of friends, thinkers, artists and activists i co-founded *free
home university (FHU) *a pedagogical artistic experiment (since 2013,
Italy) in which we focus on collective, intergenerational, experiential,
emergent, holistic forms of learning, centering around communities of
struggles (permaculture/ organic farmers, environmental and lgbtqi
activists, migrants and asylum seekers, politically and socially engaged
artists). We form groups of local, national and international learners -
carriers of different knowledges- and we anchor our research in response
and in dialogue with  our local context. We consider *pedagogy as politics,
*and create temporary communities in which living, studying and working
together - within a specific territory- are not separated spheres. We
literally live together under the same roof, for a certain time, as the
core of our methodology, that includes aspects of our own social
reproduction and material form of living.

Our methodology is informed by *artistic inquiry and convivial research, *art
is our tool, or the sensibility/ approach through which we unfold our
"action-research" and proceed by questioning. Theater, dance, film making,
design, sound, writing, painting, music, hands- on building, have been the
ways in which we have in each session unfolded our query and practiced a
way of commoning,  exploring questions related to food production,  land,
ecology, forms of oppression, displacement and belonging, but also ways of
finding joy, celebrating, being in solidarity and cultivate a spirit of
interconnectedness.
we try to move beyond the critique for the current state of the world, and
to embody possibilities of  alternative ways of knowing, being and
relating, exercising our capacities to enact change and to care for each
other and the planet.  It's a sort of acupuncture approach that in these 7
years has generated tangible transformation, strong alliance, multiplied
the initiatives, generated relationships, and an incredible amount of
material and immaterial knowledge.
www.fhu.art

This work led me to meet and become an active member of the *Ecoversities
Alliance* (I'm one of the 6 members of EA steering committee since 2016).
EA is an informal planetary network dedicated to reimagining education,
encompassing more than 100 initiatives worldwide, and growing into various
other networks. A large spectrum of unlearning and up-learning communities,
concerned with regenerative forms of knowing, ecology, autonomy, social and
environmental justice, decoloniality, Indigenous knowledge, healing, gift
and non capitalistic oriented economies, degrowith and spirituality. Within
and beyond our multiple knowledge systems, geographies, perspectives,
methods and approaches, we find our common denominator in considering
education/ pedagogy as a fundamental area for the paradigmatic shift we are
called upon to produce, in the defense of life, in all its forms and
relations.
In order  to strengthen our relationship and create possibility of further
learning and cross pollination, Ecoversities Alliance  is supporting
exchange visits and residency programs between ecoversities, regional
gatherings (Asia, Euromediterrean, Africa, Arab world, Indigenous nations,
Latin America), planetarial gatherings (so far Portugal, Costa Rica, India,
Mexico, next was supposed to be in South Africa), publications, films and
podcasts focusing on education; seeds funds to support new and ongoing
ecoversities and initiatives to support networking and collective actions
aligned with our vision.

during the pandemic, Ecoversities is hosting a  series of conversations
curated by Udi Mandel and myself, called Learning with Covid,
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEMyvDsLrx88UiQcgf_ITVw

find out more about EA
www.ecoversities.org

I'm also  an editor for  ARTSEVERYWHERE platform, where I created the
inquiry on  pedagogy / alternative education and collaborated with other
publishing initiatives.
www.artseverywhere.ca

*Pedagogy Otherwise, the reader-* is a small volume i edited putting in
conversation  voices from ecoversities and free home university. you can
download it here.
https://www.fhu.art/pedagogy-otherwise-ed-alessandra-pomarico

Apologies for the length of this note, I'm not sure that I will be able to
join you in the call tomorrow, that's why I wanted to give you a bit more
details.
I especially would encourage a cross pollination with Ecoversties, as we
are interested in expanding the realm of our initiatives and bridge with
those like you who are inside the academia, and with whom I felt a profound
resonance with

thank you

Alessandra Pomarico






On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 7:20 AM Sadia Sohail <Sadia.Sohail at in.boell.org>
wrote:

> 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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>
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