Sometimes, sharp conversational curves feel like precipitous cliffs. There is what I do, sometimes, which is to say something spontaneously about something that is going on within the context of a group that is within the realm of things most people have been trained not to say. This is more than a sharp curve, and it calls upon whoever is involved to exercise a deeper level of social resilience. Mental agility has to be combined with emotional savvy, too.
Read MoreA Temporal Turn?
by Steph • May 16th, 2012
“What is the purpose of dialogue?” Are Dialogue Under Occupation conference participants in the process of producing a work of critical art? Or are these conferences solely labor – the repetition of rituals that must be performed in order to satisfy and maintain professional credentials? Could we somehow manage to do both? Examples include the film Rabat, asking questions about symbolism entailed in labels such as the Green Line, and exploring Dr Makram Ouaiss’ point that non-violence is understudied, proven effective, and morally legitimate.
Read MoreFantasia
by Steph • May 15th, 2012
“Communication arts are the future…” I depart Beirut as I entered, awash in serendipity. Back in whaling days, the Captain’s cabin was a private refuge. Entry by others was privileged and rare. Generous gifts of time and talk throughout my stay dance questions among the neurons of my mind.
Read More…an ever-expanding Problematic Moment?
by James • April 12th, 2012
This is the second ‘report’ on a possible problematic moment at the mini-Bakhtinian conference on education hosted by the University of Delaware in March (ending on April Fool’s Day, a co-incidence of no note, unless we decide it helps the heuristic!). Contents of this blog entry are: Perils in the Foreground Promises in the Background […]
Read MoreI Sing the Body Electric (Walt Whitman on Hip Hop)
by Steph • April 8th, 2012
Through me the afflatus surging and surging . . . . through me the current and index.
Whatever goes to the tilth of me it shall be you,
You my rich blood, your milky stream pale strippings of my life;
Breast that presses against other breasts it shall be you,
My brain it shall be your occult convolutions,
Root of […]
Is Dialogue Possible?
by Steph • April 2nd, 2012
Promises and Perils of Dialogic Pedagogy
It certainly wasn’t boring.
At least not after the slow start! But maybe the start wasn’t actually that slow . . . here I am re-thinking the beginning after the end.
We did not rush back from lunch, so the first set of presentations did not begin on time. Actually, time boundary-keeping […]
A Tweetorial with a Mission
by Steph • March 27th, 2012
The best occasion to join Twitter is during a conference or event where other participants are also/already Tweeting. Even if you rarely contribute your own original Tweets, simply reading what people are talking about, and Re-Tweeting (command: RT) are significant contributions to a crucial conversation. I’m curious whether worth pursuing might come from linking the #nsftr conversation with this week’s #bakhtin conversation. Are TR (transformative research) and dialogic pedagogy (DP) two sides of the same coin?
Read MoreCan Twitter help build programs not prisons?
by Steph • November 27th, 2011
Kalle Lasn, one of the creators of the Occupy Wall Street meme (and founder of the Canadian magazine, Adbusters) has described the police raid to clear Zuccotti Park as “the latest in a series of crisis-driven opportunities.” In his interview with Mattathias Schwartz, Lasn asserts, “World wars, revolutions—from time to time, big things actually happen . . . When the moment is right, all it takes is a spark.” Lasn is calling the evictions the end of Phase I and is now calling for Phase II… What if the focus group dimension of Twitter described by Adam Green could be extended as a platform for aggregating collective intelligence? #KeepSpreadingTheMeme
Read MoreDeaf Tweet-to-Teach Emergency Responders
by Steph • November 3rd, 2011
The #demx research project of the November 9, 2011 national test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) uses Twitter to investigate whether emergency warnings reach the Deaf community in a timely and understandable manner.
Read Morethe secret WAS*IS*WILLBE handshake
by Steph • August 12th, 2011
WAS*IS is not only about the weather: its revolutionary model is an exemplar for harnessing collective intelligence in the face of our generation’s severe and complicated societal-level challenges.
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