Ecopedagogies
Symposium
Critical and Creative Approaches
03 JULY 2024 - 11am-6pm
Firs Botanical Research Centre and Manchester Museum
Join academics and creative artists for a day of presentations, performances, workshops and discussions on pedagogies and the environment:
How can the integration of ecological interdisciplinary teaching methods in the arts and humanities stimulate creative and critical thinking about environmental relationships, rights, and responsibilities in the arts and humanities?
With thanks to the UoM Faculty of Humanities Social Responsibility Fund and EAC Staff Development Funds for financial support to make this possible.
For information contact: antony.hall@mmu.ac.uk / ingrid.hanson@manchester.ac.uk
Event Documentation:
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Chair: Clara Dawson
- Henry McPherson (UoM): ‘Ecological Improvisation’
- Ghada Solomon (UoM): ‘Enhancing learning objectives through creative methods and hands-on activities: a case study of screen-printing using natural dyes workshops’
- Ryan Woods and Raichael Lock (UoM): ‘Trees, ears and the space between: exploring pedagogies of reciprocity with primary school children in Manchester’
Led by Antony Hall and Ingrid Hanson
Chair: Jenna Ashton
Eithne Quinn and Ava Goldson (UoM): ‘Pedagogies of environmental distress and action’
Cara Berger (UoM): ‘Diffraction as a concept for Arts and Humanities eco-pedagogy’
Aurora Fredriksen (UoM): ‘Do we have an obligation to teach ecological hope in the midst of ecological catastrophe?’
Chair: Anastasia Valassopoulos
Sophy King (Spark Artists’ Network): ‘The Museum of the Vibrant Collector’
Abstracts and Biographies:
Cara Berger (UoM): Diffraction as a concept for Arts and Humanities eco-pedagogy
Abstract
Diffraction is rapidly becoming a key concept for research and scholarship in the environmental arts and humanities. A material-metaphoric term drawn from physics, it points to ways of thinking beyond critical reflection and towards creative emergence through intra-actions (as per Karen Barad’s thinking) and patterns of difference (as in the work of Donna Haraway and Trinh T. Minh-ha). This short provocation will consider some of the ways diffraction might be thought about and put to use in relation to pedagogical work, including session design (especially in embodied/creative practice contexts), curriculum development and thinking through the ethical underpinnings of arts and humanities education at a time of climate collapse.
Diffraction in the context of teaching, I will suggest, helps us to become aware of the potential for transformations (of knowledges, of subjectivities, of embodied practices) as they arise (maybe uncontrollably) in the classroom, and to begin considering how we make space for such transformative activities and whether it is possible to capture, or at least track them. Diffraction in the context of teaching, I will suggest, helps us to become aware of the potential for transformations (of knowledges, of subjectivities, of embodied practices) as they arise (maybe uncontrollably) in the classroom, and to begin considering how we make space for such transformative activities and whether it is possible to capture, or at least track them.
Diffraction in the context of teaching, I will suggest, helps us to become aware of the potential for transformations (of knowledges, of subjectivities, of embodied practices) as they arise (maybe uncontrollably) in the classroom, and to begin considering how we make space for such transformative activities and whether it is possible to capture, or at least track them. Diffraction in the context of teaching, I will suggest, helps us to become aware of the potential for transformations (of knowledges, of subjectivities, of embodied practices) as they arise (maybe uncontrollably) in the classroom, and to begin considering how we make space for such transformative activities and whether it is possible to capture, or at least track them.
Anke Bernau (UoM)
Biography
Anke Bernau is interested in the plant humanities, in aesthetics, and in moss in particular. She is currently embarking on a collaborative project called 'Moss Worlds' that is bringing together moss, colleagues from different disciplines and artistic practitioners. She teaches, among other things, on courses about 'Medieval Ecologies' and 'Key Concepts in the Environmental Humanities'. At the moment, she is trying to write a book on the ecological aesthetics of medieval knots, as well co-editing A Cultural History of Nature: The Medieval Era, and a special issue on 'Plant Temporalities' for Medieval Ecocriticisms.
Aurora Fredriksen (UOM, Geography, SEED)
How should we balance the ethical demand to teach students the devastating enormity of ecological catastrophe with students’ desires for hopeful narratives?
Abstract
I explore this question drawing on my experience in designing and teaching the unit GEOG30701 ‘Wildlife in the Anthropocene’, which seeks to engage students with the idea that the contemporary predicament of wildlife is not only a subject appropriate to the sciences, but one that cannot be understood outside of culture, politics, history and economics. In my teaching I take conveying the preponderance of failure in decades of wildlife conservation efforts as an essential starting point for establishing the necessity of the humanities for thinking about wildlife in the Anthropocene (after all, the science of biodiversity loss has long been clear and yet the downward trend is only accelerating).
Yet, I find that students often ask for – indeed, seem to desperately desire – more hopeful narratives and examples. As teachers, how can we meet this desire without downplaying losses and failures? Do we risk demoralising and demotivating our students when we bring the scale of ecological catastrophe into focus? Conversely, do we risk complacency if we focus too much on hope?
Ingrid Hanson (UoM)
Biography
Ingrid Hanson is a lecturer in English literature at the University of Manchester, author of William Morris and the Uses of Violence (2014) and editor of 21st Century Oxford Authors Selected Works of William Morris (OUP, 2024). She has published work on nineteenth-century writings on violence, peace, masculinities, mourning and utopia, and is currently working on a book project on political and literary constructions of peace (including land justice and ecologies of peace) in the long nineteenth century, entitled Disturbing the Peace, and on Moss Worlds, an interdisciplinary, collaborative and exploratory project with Anke Bernau, Aurora Frederiksen and others, on the politics, aesthetics and histories of urban moss.
Antony Hall (MMU)
Abstract
BRYOMANIA (2021-ongoing) is a research project consisting of a series of interdisciplinary art-works; mobile interventions/ objects (maps and terrariums) and site specific workshops, which explore Bryophytes (moss and the places of moss) and investigates the capacity of tactical pop up interventions and mobile actions (walking). The project aims to heighten awareness of biodiversity, specifically the lesser noticed microfauna (plants and animals) which thrive in peripheral urban spaces (neglected sites).
Biography
Antony Hall (MMU/ SODA FutureMedia Production) is an artist andacademic working at the intersection ofscience and art. His practiceencompasses installation, and participatory practices. Halls research has traversed a broad range ofsubjects, from the communication signals of electrogenic fish and the phenomenology of hallucination, to listening the sound of moss and ecological surveys. www.antonyhall.net/blog Instagram: @tonazoid
Damian Rivett (MMU Natural Sciences)
Biography
Damian Rivett (Manchester Met./ Natural Sciences) is a microbiologist with a broad interest in the ecology of, and interactions between, the unseen biosphere. His work uses traditional and cutting-edge techniques and takes him from corridors of inner-city hospitals to the expansive horizons of coastal wetlands, all the time investigating the intermingling of microorganisms from bacterial viruses to tardigrades.
Henry McPherson (UoM)
Abstract
“Improvising ecologically can be thought of as practising spontaneous, embodied, expressive activity that enfolds, and is emergent from, the dynamic material world” (McPherson, 2024, 131)
For the Ecopedagogies symposium, I would like to propose a short (5 min) provocation and subsequent performance (5 min) centred on improvisation (in sound and movement) as a mode of listening, thinking, performing, and doing ecology.
Drawing across a body of developing creative research work, as well as my experience as a pedagogue working with improvisation in higher education, I would like to read some short statements/questions, and then offer a performative response using Recorder and live (portable!) electronics, ideally in relation to a space with plants or other non-human lifeforms.
I would like to propose the capacity of improvisation to foster empathy and connection with the more-than-human world, through its emphasis on attentive embodied listening, reciprocal cycles of play, and the acceptance of emergences (sounds, happenings, unexpected occurrences) which fundamentally shape the development of a performance as it unfolds in dialogue with its environment.
As an improviser, understanding oneself as contributing to an emerging performance world in which more-than-human actors are afforded agency can heighten a sense of mutual connectivity and provoke expanded experiences of selfhood in relation to other beings.
I would like to invite attendees of the symposium to consider (and experience!) the ways in which spaces, more-than-human organisms and materials, have interplay with the performer during improvisatory practice.
Web: www.henrymcpherson.org.uk / @HenryDMcPherson (instagram, twitter)
Jenna Ashton (UOM): Orchards and Orcharding for Ecopedagogy
Biography
Dr Jenna C. Ashton is a Lecturer in Heritage Studies and an arts-practice researcher working on cultural analysis and theory at the nexus between community heritage, ecologies, place, and social and environmental justice. She has a background in artmaking, exhibition curation, creative producing, and arts-education. Jenna is the Research Lead for Creative and Civic Futures for UoM research platform “Creative Manchester”, an Associate Member of the UoM Sustainable Consumption Institute, and Member of the UoM Manchester Urban Institute. Externally, she is a member of the RGS Animal Geographies Working Group. Jenna has extensive experience of research collaboration across interdisciplinary arts-science teams.She has also trained in agroforestry "forest garden" design, permaculture, and ecology, and is a member of the Greater Manchester Food Sovereignty project group.
Abstract
This talk considers the potential of community orchards and “orcharding” as ecopedagogy, evolving student civic participation, care, skills, and action, towards food and land equity and justice. A longstanding practice of horticulture, community orchards are culturally significant for supporting local distinctiveness, and can be social places for local gathering, ritual and celebration, and community economies. Orchards provide health and learning benefits as a source of local food production and are crucial in supporting biodiversity and enhancing ecological connectivity. The talk is also proposes the study and practice of orcharding to be embraced for its potential as a new trans-disciplinary focus of “Orchard Studies”, working across cultural heritage, community economies, agroecology, and health to inject vitality into climate and biodiversity crisis discourses.
Helen McGhie (MMU): Creative Encounters with the Dark Forest
Abstract
I propose a paper and a ‘sonified photograph’ sound installation, sharing my practice-based photography PhD research explored in partnership with Kielder Observatory, in Northumberland International Dark Sky Park. Through conversational and/or sensory engagements with human and more-than-human communities, I explored the dark-sky experience in Northern England through photography practice, distinct from conventional starry-sky ‘astrophotography.’ Creative co-learning was key, where photographic outputs catalysed conversations on the dark-sky experience with Observatory stakeholders, drawing attention to imaginative nocturnal experience.
Kielder Observatory is an off-grid facility in Kielder Forest, in England’s largest human-made woodland. Through arts-based research, narrative inquiry and reflective practice, I encountered dark-sky communities, photographed at night and slept under the stars. Whilst a ‘built’ forest, Kielder’s vibrant species of birds, mosses and insects contributed to creative outputs in unexpected ways, marking outdoor exhibited images and enhancing a ‘sonified photograph’ sound trail. When disseminating work through public events and ‘art’ walking tours, I learned how creativity in the dark forest connects human and more-than-human communities through “knowing as you go” (Ingold, 2000, pp. 228-231), where wandering and dwelling enabled learning under dark skies.
Ingold, T. (2000) The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill. London: Routledge.
Biography
Helen McGhie is a photographer, practice-based researcher and Senior Lecturer in Photography at the School of Digital Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University. She recently completed her PhD at the University of Sunderland in partnership with the astronomy charity Kielder Observatory (Northumberland, UK), exploring photography as a tool to explore the dark-sky experience informed by Kielder’s human and more-than-human communities, to catalyse conversations between stakeholders and to generate new audiences for a creative practitioner and a third-sector organisation. McGhie previously studied at the Royal College of Art, has exhibited widely and published in academic contexts, most recently through the chapter, ‘Creative Approaches to Dark Skies Research: A Dialogue Between Two Artist-Researchers’ co-written with Natalie Marr for Dark Skies: Places, Practices, Communities, edited by Nick Dunn and Tim Edensor (Routledge, 2024).
Socials: Instagram @helen_mcghie [instagram.com] / Twitter - @HelenMcGhie [x.com] / LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-helen-mcghie-a00b3a6b/ [linkedin.com]
Website: www.helenmcghie.com [helenmcghie.com]
Raichael Lock & Ryan Woods (UoM)
Trees, Ears and The Space Between: Exploring pedagogies of reciprocity with primary school children in Manchester.
Abstract
Taking inspiration from Kimmerer’s indigenous wisdoms, we base this research in an ethos of reciprocity. We highlight the children’s growing relationships with trees through interdisciplinary working. Working with methodologies from sensory and sound anthropology, the project grounded itself in science such as Simard’s notion of the wood-wide web and practical gardening skills, before being enriched with creative sonic practices taken from Oliveros and Schafer. We highlight how experiential, response-able and sensory pedagogies support outdoor, place-based learning whilst sharing our observations and the reflections of the children who participated. We witness the children’s growing realisation of responsibility in their relationship with the more-than-human.
In Moss Side, Manchester, 2023, eleven children from a primary school council joined an after-school club to learn about the trees in their school grounds. Working with MEEN’s (Manchester Environmental Education Network) Treemarkable project they learned to identify these trees, map them, care for them and plant more. Nested into this was a soundscape research project which involved pupils in deep listening, putting microphones into trunks to listen to the trees, and meditating on becoming the trees. Thinking as trees they wrote letters to communicate with the human species.
Biography
Ryan Woods is a PhD Researcher at Novar's Centre for Electroacoustic Composition the University of Manchester. He is exploring Manchester's acoustic and cultural ecologies through soundscape composition and ethnographic methodologies.
Dr Raichael Lock is a part-time lecturer in the Manchester Institute of Education with a focus on Education for Sustainability. She iis the director of the Manchester Environmental Education Network and worked on the Department of Education delivering the previous government's Sustainable Schools programme in the North West.
Rebecca Hurst (UoM)
Abstract
In my dreams past and present were co-existent, and I lived in the past with a knowledge of the future… (Alison Uttley, A Traveller in Time, 1939)
For the Ecopedagogies symposium I propose a performance of ‘Mast Year’, a poem commissioned by The University of Manchester to commemorate its bicentenary.
The poem is framed around an ecological perspective; one that considers both the University’s historical role in Manchester’s industrial development, and its present-day commitment to addressing the current climate and ecological crisis. Through poetry I was able to draw upon archival resources, interviews with individuals working within the university, and my own embodied experience of the University’s environment. In writing ‘Mast Year’ — which uses an encounter with hairy bittercress (a common, self-seeding plant or ‘weed’) as a central metaphor — creative and critical thinking about the entanglement of human/environmental relationships, rights, and responsibilities were core to my engagement with place and history.
‘Mast Year’ is available in its entirety on the University’s website.
Biography
Dr Rebecca Hurst Rebecca is a writer, opera-maker, illustrator, and researcher. Her debut collection, The Iron Bridge, was published by Carcanet in March 2024, and she is also the author of a poetry pamphlet called The Fox’s Wedding (Emma Press, 2022). Rebecca has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Manchester and is a Creative Manchester postdoctoral research associate. Her practice-based research engages with creativity and wellbeing.
Website: http://rebeccahurst.eu/Instagram: rebecca.hurst70Substack: https://rebeccahurst.substack.com/
Sophy King (SPARK) The Museum of the Vibrant Collector (short film)
Abstract
The animation follows a museum cabinet that awakens in a post-human world. Following some sort of cultural memory, it gathers and classifies its' world. The exhibition installation sees the cabinet regurgitate its amalgamated discoveries for our perusal. Interrogating Western scientific inquiry’s capitalist, colonialist mindset; the futility of studying one part of a system in isolation; recognising interconnectedness and embracing the chaotic, messy beauty of our biosphere and deep timeframe
Image: The Museum of the Vibrant Collector, 2023 drawers, fossils, flint, sand, Carex pendula, AI generated faux scientific terms, paper, inkAccompanied by The Animated Museum of the Vibrant Collector, 2023, 2mins 30 Stop-motion and drawn animation
Biography
Sophy King is based in Manchester. Her early career public realm artworks developed, via Landscape Architecture, and MA Fine Art at MMU, into a multidisciplinary practice addressing the intersection of human/non-human activity. Her work considers the environmental and cultural implications of resource consumption, ecosystem depletion, and the climate crisis.
insta: @sophykingart
Ghada Solomon (UoM)
Abstract
Enhancing Learning Objectives through Creative Methods and Hands-On Activities: A Case Study of Screen-Printing using natural dyes Workshops for Women in Deprived Communities.Enhancing Learning Objectives through Creative Methods and Hands-On Activities: A Case Study of Screen-Printing using natural dyes Workshops for Women in Deprived Communities.
The primary goal of education is to impart knowledge and skills to students, enabling them to apply the acquired information in practical situations. However, accomplishing this objective can be challenging, particularly for underrepresented populations. This study aims to explore innovative teaching strategies that can help achieve learning objectives through creative methods and hands-on activities.
This study seeks to demonstrate the value of innovative teaching strategies in reaching underrepresented populations and fostering inclusive learning environments through a blend of theoretical understandings and real-world examples. The case study provides insightful information about how experiential learning strategies affect academic results, particularly in situations where formal education may not be readily available.
The case study presented in this symposium focuses on utilising screen printing with natural dyes to teach workshops to women from deprived communities who have mental illness. The study aims to improve memory retention, enhance concentration levels, and promote an understanding of sustainability. The use of creative techniques, such as printing, is intended to make learning more engaging and memorable for the students.
Ava Goldson and Eithne Quinn:
‘Pedagogies of environmental distress and action’
Abstract
On the course Climate Change & Culture Wars (a third-year option in the Dept. of English and American Studies), we consider a question that has been posed by many as the environmental emergency progresses. In the words of the Yale Centre for Climate Change Communication: Is distress about climate change associated with climate action? The Yale centre answers this question via large public opinion surveys; in our class, we also look at individual praxis. Testing the thesis that action serves as a response to and/or helps ward off distress, students are invited to take action, or reflect on action previously taken, in light of course content and write up an assessed report about it, reflecting on the distress/action dialectic.
This presentation features third-year Climate Change & Culture Wars student Ava Goldson and teacher Professor Eithne Quinn, who will offer critical illustration and reflection on this class topic and assignment and how it sits within wider course pedagogies.
Biography
Eithne Quinn is a Professor of Cultural and Socio-Legal Studies in the Department of English & American Studies at Manchester. She teaches the third-year course Climate Change and Culture Wars and edited ‘Teaching Environmental American Studies in a Time of Crisis’ in the Journal of American Studies (2021).
Ava Goldson has just finished her degree in English Literature.
Ecopedagogies Symposium