Research Circle Events in 2022
Three events took place during 2022, and recordings are available for one of these events:
Research Circle events in 2022 followed the theme:
Dialogues for Democracy: Cultures and Ecologies in Crisis
Summary of 2022 Events
The second series of events (2022) sought to develop and broaden our focus to examine and counter the current crises and hollowing out of representative and participatory democracy with three events focusing on ‘Dialogues for Democracy: Cultures and Ecologies in Crisis’.
The Event in May included the following contributions:
- A keynote from Professor Sir Michael G. Marmot, FRCP, Director of the University College London, Institute of Health Equity entitled Build Back Fairer.
- Presentation by Professor Helen Chatterjee, Professor of Biology, in University College London Biosciences and UCL Arts and Sciences: The role of cultural, community and natural assets in addressing societal and structural health inequalities in the UK.
- Dr Ana Cruz’s presentation, Professor of Education at St. Louis Community College-Meramec, who won the 2022 Paulo Freire Democratic Project Award of Social Justice.
On June 10th, 2022, we focused on ecological/climate emergency and environmental action. This session aimed to debate and plan possibilities for adult lifelong education, tackling ecological climate emergency and taking environmental action. Short presentations were given by Professor Steve Martin, University of Nottingham; Mel Lenehan, Principal and CEO, Fircroft College, Birmingham, and Ross Weddle, Chair, WEA Green Branch. This was followed by opportunities to join discussion groups and plan action.
On September 15th, 2022, we looked at universities and their relationship to participatory action and social movements, asking:
- What should the University’s social and cognitive responsibilities be in the face of rising inequality and injustice and how should research engage more directly with “real life” problems and politics?
- What is the role and function of the “public academic” and the critical activist?
The event featured 10-minute presentations from Shirley Walters, Professor Emerita from the University of Western Cape, South Africa, who talked about universities and their relationship to participatory action and social movements, and Dr Michael Hrebeniak, Convenor of the New School of the Anthropocene, who outlined the role of NSOTA, configured as a new kind of school which ‘is born out of a need. Professor Emeritus Linden West, Canterbury Christ Church University, also dialogued with Professor Laura Formenti of the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, about universities and social responsibility in Italy and the UK. An important link was made around the theme of dialogue and democracy in the classroom, and how this could build communities in diverse locations. The dialogue linked back to the tutorial class movement in the UK and family learning in Italy. Their argument was clear: we must practise what we preach. The mainstream university has proven unable and unwilling to engage with the condition of social crisis and the prospect of democratic and ecological ruin that characterise the 21st Century.