Cross-Pollination: Seeding New Ground for Environmental Thought and Activism across the Arts and Humanities | NiCHE - Network in Canadian History & Environment

Submitted by LizaPiper on October 29, 2010 - 12:11

Event Info

Event Date:

Mar 24 2011 - Mar 27 2011

Venue:

University of Alberta

City:

Edmonton

Country:

Canada

Primary Contact Name:

Lisa Szabo and Liza Piper

Contact Email:

lszabo@ualberta.ca

Registration Deadline:

Feb 11 2011

This collaborative and interdisciplinary workshop brought together Canadian experts (historians, writers, literary critics, curators, environmental consultants, and visual artists) in the production and interpretation of text and visual imagery to better understand how such media enable us to know and then act on behalf of places in more sustainable and ethical ways. The places in question are Western Canadian places, including desert, prairie, mountain, and coastal environments.

Workshop Format

The objectives of this workshop were two-fold:

First, we aimed to bring together scholars and creative producers working in the Arts and Humanities to engage in conversations that bridge disciplinary or media-based boundaries in how they think and engage with nature and Western Canadian places.

Second, to help focus these conversations, we asked that participants speak from pre-circulated materials, some of which we aim to publish in a final edited collection which will reflect not just the breadth of workshop participants, but also the positive influence of our conversations.

Public Plenary Roundtables

Two plenary roundtables were open to the public:

Endangered Native Grasslands
Three talks and a conversation – “prairie ponderings” - between Trevor Herriot, Sharon Butala, and Bill Waiser. As large scale agriculture, urban and resource development, and climate change diminish Canada’s native prairie grasslands, greater understanding emerges of what we are losing -- not only the habitats and the creatures who depend on those ecosystems for survival, but also our connections with the natural world. During this evening, the speakers will explore questions of our historical relationships to the natural world, a call for changed perceptions, and how to cultivate and communicate new, creative relationships with the environment.
Writing Home and Indigenous Thought
"Writing Home and Indigenous Thought" brings together Deanna Reder and Warren Cariou for an evening of two talks and a conversation that challenges Western assumptions of Native representation concerning urbanity and human waste. Warren Cariou, author and film documentarist, teaches Aboriginal Literature at the University of Manitoba, and Deanna Reder, co-editor of Troubling Tricksters: Revisioning Critical Conversations, teaches in the First Nations Studies Program and English Department at Simon Fraser University. NiCHE reception to follow.

Acknowledgments

The Cross-Pollination workshop organisers would like to acknowledge the support of the following organizations for making this workshop possible:

Schedule / Programme