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Please see the following call for proposals for a workshop at the
Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) Annual Meeting in Vancouver,
BC (March 29-April 2, 2016):<br>
<br>
Anthropologists and scholars in cognate disciplines have addressed
walking as a fertile method of ethnographic inquiry (Pink 2008,
Guano 2003); a mode of learning and an embodied, place-specific way
of engaging with issues and communities (Vergunst 2008); a means of
subverting unequal relations of power, including those between
researchers and interlocutors (Kusenbach 2003, Irving 2011); as well
as a strategy of control, surveillance, and dominance (Shaw 2013).
Walking tours in various forms, including audio itineraries and
mapping exercises, have been used by individuals and groups to
reframe spaces and histories. As a performative form of constructing
and representing identities and claims to the world, walking has
also been a powerful tool for activism, dissent, and community
engagement of various kinds. The Mothers circling Plaza de Mayo in
Buenos Aires during the dictatorship in Argentina, a group of Cree
youth from Whapmagoostui, Quebec, snowshoeing 1, 600 kilometres to
Parliament Hill in support of the <em>Idle No More</em> movement,
and guided city walks in Milan, Italy, by disadvantaged residents
are some of many examples.<br>
<br>
For this workshop, we are looking for participants interested in
exploring walking as a complex, contradictory, and contested social
practice – a form of activism, a tool for resistance, a way of
constructing social and environmental justice, but also a hegemonic
and/or discriminatory force. The questions we invite you to consider
include: what are some potentials and pitfalls of walking as a form
of social commentary? How has walking been used by individuals
and groups to counter oppression and suggest alternatives? How, on
the opposite, have various walks and itineraries been used to
exclude people and perpetuate inequalities? How can ethnographers
work collaboratively with groups and communities involved in walking
projects and practices that support social justice? The workshop
will include a discussion of examples as well as an experiential
component in which we will share strategies for organizing,
initiating, and/or following walking projects.<br>
<br>
If you are interested in participating, please send us a 200 word
abstract before October 10, which includes<br>
<br>
- a proposal for a 10 minute presentation on walking and activism
and/or community projects. Examples discussed can range from small
everyday itineraries to large-scale rallies and projects, and from
analyses of events and initiatives to ethnographic insights and
research experiences.<br>
<br>
- a description of a 15 minutes walking activity or exercise you can
facilitate with all the attendees of the workshop (exercises can
take place in or outside of a classroom). All participants will be
asked to lead an activity as well as participate in the one of
others.<br>
<br>
Please send the abstracts to Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston at <a
href="mailto:mkazubow@yorku.ca"><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:mkazubow@yorku.ca">mkazubow@yorku.ca</a></a> or to
Cristina Moretti at <a href="mailto:crimoretti@gmail.com">crimoretti@gmail.com</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston
Associate Professor, Department of Theatre
Graduate Program in Theatre & Performance Studies
Graduate Program in Social Anthropology
York University
312 Centre for Film and Theatre (CFT)
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada
T: 416-736-2100 x. 22257
E: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:mkazubow@yorku.ca">mkazubow@yorku.ca</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://imaginativeethnography.org">http://imaginativeethnography.org</a></pre>
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