Workshops and Events at Research Hub

Mathematising Social Issues to Imagine a Different World

Presenters: Dr. Sean Chorney

Time: September 30, 2020 | 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Place: Zoom

Can mathematics be used to imagine alternative approaches to problematic social issues? I propose that mathematising aspects of our social world can help us not only identify hidden problems, but also formulate alternative conceptions of their causes and possible solutions. This talk will report on Dr. Sean Chorney's study of teaching high school mathematics classes on the topic of gerrymandering, as a demonstration of how mathematics can raise awareness and imagination.

The Vital Role of Indigenous Imagination in Transformative Reconciliation

Presenters: Dr. Vicki Kelly

Time & Date: March 4, 2020 | 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Place: EDB 7610, Education Building, SFU Burnaby Campus

Central to transformative reconciliation and Indigenous resurgence is a revaluation of Indigenous knowledge traditions in Canadian society, and especially in our education systems. This impels us to ask: How do Indigenous knowledge holders hold knowledge? And how is that process embodied and enacted within Indigenous education? Images play a key role in the participatory pedagogies through which Indigenous knowledge systems grow and flourish, especially as they inform and guide the work of making or poesis. Artists are a vital part of those systems, because the images with which they work, and which they give concrete form, are packed with knowledge. Reconciliation and resurgence can thus be seen as profoundly imaginative and artistic educational processes whose reach extends to our most everyday interactions and material realities.

“Imagination has a place because imagination IS a place, and because everything is connected to everything else, the encounter with imagination is a living communication within a sentient landscape." (Dan Longboat & Joe Sheridan)

“Images are compressed complexities” (David Hunt). 

"All the objects used in everyday life, including the simplest and most ordinary ones, are, so to speak, crystallized imagination.” (Lev Vygotsky)

Reimagining Research as Performance

Presenters: Dr. Lynn Fels & Saliha Bava

Time: February 6, 2020 | 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Place: Room 5080, SFU Surrey Campus

Dr. Fels is a Profession in Arts Education in the Faculty of Education, SFU. Her research focuses on performative inquiry, arts for social change, arts as learning, performative writing, and arts-based research. 

Saliha Bava, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at Mercy College, New York, USA. Dr. Bava is a researcher of play and relational processes. She researches how individuals improvise with each other within educational, training, or work contexts.

They are currently co-investigators in a research project that explores how community is created through shared experiences of creative play, improvisation, and collaboration.

September 25, 2019
Enhancing Your Academic Writing in Graduate Studies

Academic writing in graduate studies requires students to level-up their skills and focus to engage fully in scholarly discourse. General tips like “write every day” and “demonstrate critical thinking” can fall flat without more knowledge of specific approaches for writing and revising. Join today’s workshop to learn more about academic writing style, analysis, argumentation, and using sources in ways that will empower you to excel in your graduate writing projects.