[csaa-forum] CCR SEMINAR SERIES 08: Megan Watkins and James Arvanitakis & Bob Hodge - 14 August

[Reena Dobson]

Apologies for cross-postings 

 Centre for Cultural Research

University of Western Sydney

 

invites all to attend

the CCR Seminar Series 2008

featuring

 

 Dr Megan Watkins (CCR)

 

and

 

Dr James Arvanitakis & Professor Bob Hodge (CCR)

 

Date: Thursday, 14 August

Time: 2.00pm - 4.30pm

Venue: TBC, Parramatta Campus

Afternoon tea and cakes provided 

RSVP: Jacqui Kingi j.kingi at uws.edu.au or 9685 9600

Apologies: Kay Anderson k.anderson at uws.edu.au   

 

 

 

Habit, Bodily Literacy and the Space to Learn

Megan Watkins

 

Habit draws something new from repetition, namely difference.

In essence, habit is contraction.

Deleuze, 1994, p. 73.

 This paper explores the enabling potential of habit. Within education,
for example, habit seems a much maligned concept. Erased from syllabus
documents in the 1970s, it has been replaced by a psychological focus on
values and attitudes. It is generally equated with rote learning and
memorization, pedagogic techniques that may aid the recall of facts but
are seen to have little value in the development of critical thought and
creative expression. To Deleuze, however, habit involves much more than
simple iteration. The acquisition of habits results in contraction or
the efficient processing of different functions which in turn allow
difference through repetition; a space with both critical and creative
potential. Early progressivists, such as Dewey, had a similar
perspective. As Dewey (2002, p. 70) explains 'mechanisation is not all
there is to habit'; rather, 'a flexible sensitive habit grows more
varied more adaptable by practice and use' (Dewey, 2002, p.72). This is
a view widely accepted within such fields as music and sport but within
education, and learning to write in particular, it is given little
credence. This paper expounds a notion of bodily literacy; the ways in
which a literate body must habituate a range of skills which affords the
mental space for the efficient production of text and its creative
manipulation.

 

  

 

The Rise of the 'Occasionally Interested' Citizen: An Investigation into
the Heterogenous Nature of Citizenship

James Arvanitakis and Bob Hodge 

 

This presentation is based on a broader research project that attempts
to expand citizen studies literature by looking at citizenship as
complex and ever changing. The focus here will be on a cross-cultural
comparison between Australia and Colombia, looking at two 'spontaneous'
protests that have been heralded as examples of 'active citizenship.'
Drawing on recent research that places citizenship on an
empowerment/engagement typology, this discussion raises questions
regarding the nature of citizen engagement and argues that such
manifestations can actually disempower citizens. We will also present
some initial findings on 'citizenship categories', as well argue that
these require different strategies to encourage political re-engagement
and re-empowerment - and offer some thoughts on how experiences of
disempowerment can be overcome.

 

 

 

Dr Megan Watkins is Senior Lecturer in Literacy and Pedagogy in the
School of Education at the University of Western Sydney.  She is the
co-author of Genre, Text, Grammar: Technologies for Teaching and
Assessing Writing (2005) UNSW Press.  Megan has published scholarly
articles in the areas of pedagogy, affect and the role of the body in
learning.

 

Dr James Arvanitakis is a Lecturer in the Humanities at the University
of Western Sydney and a member of the Centre for Cultural Research.  A
former banker, he changed his politics when he discovered the
economist's promised land of the 'long run' was nothing more than a
figment of Milton Friedman's imagination.  James' latest book, The
Cultural Commons of Hope, was launched in May 2008.

 

Professor Bob Hodge is a member of the Centre for Cultural Research, a
former covert Marxist and disengaged critical theorist who now repents
of his former ways, in favour of a more popular form of critical and
engaged activity, no less Marxist.

 

 

Parramatta Campus Map and Directions 
http://www.uws.edu.au/about/locations/maps/parramattamap     

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