Rebecca McGuire-Snieckus
GALA Conference 2018
Posted on July 20, 2018
GALA Conference 2018 Hosted by Concordia University 25-27 July
Concordia University will host the 2018 GALA conference on the theme of practice-as-research/research creation, the creative and cultural industries, multimedia practice, public engagement, social change, and the liberal arts. July 25 – Day 1
| Time | Room | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 14:00 – 17:00 | GM | Governance and Strategy meeting (invitation only) |
| 17:00 – 19:30 | GN-E104 | Welcome & Keynote – Caitlin Fisher, followed by reception (including students) |
| 20:00 – 21:00 | MACM | Private tour of Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal with Elena Hill |
| Time | Room | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00 – 9:00 | GN-E104 | Breakfast welcome & photograph |
| 9:00 – 9:30 | GN-E104 | Opening & Introductions |
| 9:30 – 10:45 | GN-E104 | Lecture |
| 10:45 – 11:00 | – | Break |
| 11:00 – 12:30 | GN-E104 | Panel 1: Teaching creativity/creative teaching Creativity in liberal education before and after study commencement – Merel van Goch (Utrecht University) Developing Creative and Professional Practice through Flipped Learning – June Bianchi (Bath Spa) Video Reflective Dialogues: sense seeking through entangled perspectives – Rebecca Digby (Bath Spa) and Viki Bennett (Bath Spa) |
| 12:30 – 14:00 | – | Lunch (own arrangements) |
| 14:00 – 15:30 | GN-E104 | Panel 2: The politics of the liberal arts Seeing the bigger picture: teaching cultural policy and politics in arts and cultural management education – Kristin Doern Studying Reformation and the Enlightenment: imperatives for new Intellectual Perspectives on ’Non-West’ – Iftikhar Malik (Bath Spa) Mapping fault lines: arts-based interdisciplinary interventions for social change – Laura Purcell-Gates (Bath Spa) |
| 15:30 – 16:00 | – | Break |
| 16:00 – 17:30 | GN-E104 | Panel 3: Rethinking the liberal arts curriculum A panel/roundtable involving presentations from RANEPA (Evgeni Mironov), following their March workshop, and Geneseo (Stacey Robertson) |
| 17:30 | – | End of Conference Day |
| 19:00 | – | GALA dinner – L’académie Restaurant |
| Time | Room | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 – 10:30 | GN-E104 | Panel 4: society and environment ACT project – Constance Lafontaine Civic Media: a Community Based Approach – Eric Freedman (Columbia College, Chicago) The Best Answer – At a Moment in Time – Dana D. Connell (Columbia College, Chicago) |
| 10:30 – 11:00 | – | Break |
| 11:00 – 12:30 | GN-E104 | Panel 5: Writing, music, art Writing the Ambient: notes from the Ambient Literature Research Project – Kate Pullinger (Bath Spa University) Sensations, Spaces, and Spectacles: Shaping Experience for Audiences, Now and in the Future – Gary Sangster (Bath Spa) Musical creativity and electronic media. Understanding and teaching an artistic revolution – Luca Cossetini (Udine University) |
| 12:30 – 14:00 | – | Lunch (own arrangements) |
| 14:00 – 15:30 | GN-E104 | Planning session |
| 15:30 – 16:00 | – | Break |
| 16:00 – 17:00 | GN-E104 | Student presentations |
| 17:00 | – | Conference ends |
Guest Speakers
Caitlin Fisher directs the Augmented Reality Lab at York University in Toronto, Canada, where she held the Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture for the past decade. A 2013 Fulbright Chair, Fisher is the recipient of many international awards for digital storytelling including the Electronic Literature Award for Fiction (for the hypermedia novella These Waves of Girls ) and the International Vinaròs Prize for Electronic Literature (for the augmented reality poem Andromeda, one of the first poems ever created in AR). Recent work has been shortlisted for the UK New Media Writing Prize (Circle) and the Robert Coover Award (Everyone at this Party is Dead, a virtual reality novella, also selected for inclusion in the 2016 Electronic Literature Collection ). She serves on the international Board of Directors for both the Electronic Literature Organization and HASTAC, the Humanities Arts Science Technology Alliance and Collaboratory. Fisher is currently engaged in a four-year research project exploring new literary forms in augmented reality, creating long-form interactive mobile narratives.
Merel van Goch is Assistant Professor at the interdisciplinary undergraduate program Liberal Arts and Sciences at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Her work is centered around the question whether interdisciplinary programs attract or create (or both) critical, creative students. Particularly relevant in answering this question is adaptive expertise: a broad set of skills and knowledge useful in applying experience to changing circumstances. She uses quantitative and qualitative methods to study interdisciplinary and monodisciplinary students’ development throughout their undergraduate education. She teaches throughout the Liberal Arts and Sciences program and is the Honors Coordinator of the School Liberal Arts, in which program she also teaches. Her PhD research focused on kindergartners’ literacy acquisition; she tracked children’s language development longitudinally from age 4 to 7. In 2013, she was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Yale University. She has completed a Research Master of Science in Cognitive Neuroscience (specialization: Psycholinguistics) and a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Linguistics (specializations: Theater, Film, and Literature Studies; Dutch Literature and Linguistics).
June Bianchi is an artist, senior lecturer, and member of the Creative and Cultural Education Research Group (CCERG) within the Institute for Education at Bath Spa University (BSU). June’s pedagogy and practice are based within the Artist, Researcher, Teacher model and she promotes wider participation, engagement and empowerment through the arts within her exhibitions, publications and educational practice. June coordinates and contributes to a range of courses across postgraduate Initial Teacher Education, undergraduate, Masters and continuing professional development programmes. She has developed national and international arts educational research projects and partnerships across all phases of statutory and voluntary educational, cultural, and community sectors in UK, Europe, USA, South and East Asia, and Africa. June currently coordinates the UK’s BSU led element of a two-year European Commission project ‘ArtsTogether: integrating migrant children through expressive arts.’ June’s exhibitions, publications and creative educational projects are internationally recognized through: the award of a Higher Educational Academy National Teaching Fellowship; judge for the Children’s BAFTA Film awards; Evaluator for the Research Academy of Finland; Associate Editorships of international journals and educational publishers; External Examiner for a range of UK HEIs; charitable trusteeships. June’s research funders include: Arts Council, Arts and Business, British Academy, European Commission, Higher Education Academy. Her publications were included within BSU’s Research Excellence Framework 2014 and she is developing submissions for REF2021.
Rebecca Digby is the Co-Leader of the Centre for Research in Early Childhood (REaCH) and Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies at Bath Spa University. Her research has been focused on pedagogy and practice in early childhood education, and her PhD examines the role of Video Reflective Dialogues in practitioner’s collective meaning-making processes. Currently, she is exploring New Materialist perspectives in relation to studies of early childhood. Rebecca teaches on modules across the Early Childhood Studies degree programme at Bath Spa University and is particularly interested in issues around social justice, participation and voice. Previously, she has taught across Primary and Early Years education in both England and Scotland. Her roles have included Advanced Skills Teacher specialising in Science and Creativity and Deputy Head Teacher.
Viki Bennett is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at Bath Spa University. She is passionate about widening participation in HE through her role as Programme Leader for Foundation degrees in Early Years, Early Childhood Studies and for Teaching Assistants. Taking a feminist perspective, Viki’s research interests focus on the agency of the practitioner and stem from her career roles both in local government and in work-based HE learning in early childhood and schools. In partnership with Oak Tree Day Nursery at Bath Spa University, Viki is currently researching the use of video as a reflective community of practice catalyst which foregrounds the perspectives of the child. This research, Children’s Visible Voices, has two strands: to support practitioner collaborative reflection on both their own pedagogy and on children’s experiences; to facilitate undergraduate student understandings of children as competent players and communicators. She is also researching the career and personal outcomes for female teaching assistant Foundation degree graduates though the Transforming Lives Project, which takes reflexivity as an underpinning framework
Kristin Doern is the Graduate Course Director for the Bath Business School at Bath Spa University, leading the school’s postgraduate courses, which include: MA Business and Management, MSc Accounting and Finance, MA Arts Management. Her particular areas of expertise are: arts and cultural management; arts education and cultural learning; audience development and community engagement; cultural heritage management; World Heritage Site management and heritage and public history. With a background as a performer and arts manager, Kristin has over twenty-five years experience in the arts and cultural sector in both Canada and the UK.
Iftikhar H. Malik, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, teaches modern history at Bath Spa University and is an MCR at Wolfson College, Oxford. With doctoral and post-doctoral training at Michigan State, Columbia and UC, Berkeley, he has published seventeen books and several papers on historical subjects. His recent volumes include: Pashtun Identity and Geopolitics in Southwest Asia: Pakistan and Afghanistan since 9/11 (Anthem, 2016); Pakistan: Democracy, Terror and the Building of a Nation, (New Holland Publishers, 2010); The History of Pakistan (Greenwood Press, 2008); and Crescent between Cross and Star: Muslims and the West after 9/11, (OUP, 2006). Oxford University Press is publishing Iftikhar’s forthcoming book, The Silk Road and Beyond: Narratives of a Muslim Historian. He is the also the co-editor of Muslims and Western Europe in the Modern Era: Contemporary Debates in Historical Perspective (2019).
Laura Purcell-Gates is Reader in Drama and founder/director of the Arts and Social Change Research Group at Bath Spa University, and Co-Artistic Director of UK-based puppetry company Wattle and Daub. She has published in Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, Journal of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, and Popular Entertainment Studies, and has a chapter in the forthcoming book Women and Puppetry: Critical and Historical Investigations to be published by Routledge in 2018. She is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College in the UK, a peer reviewer for Journal of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training and Palgrave MacMillan, and a member of the AHRC research network Objects with Objectives: Applied Theatre and Puppetry. Her main areas of research concern intersectional approaches to hybrid bodies within puppetry, object theatre and cyborg performance, performance and medical humanities, arts and displacement, and theatre and puppetry for social change. Her current research concerns puppetry, disability and medical humanities in collaboration with The Wellcome Trust. Her upcoming research concerns puppetry and object theatre as intervention with refugee young people in collaboration with Dafa Puppet Theatre, Prague/Jordan.
Evgeni Mironov, Dean of Undergraduate Studies of RANEPA’s Institute for Social Sciences, PhD in History. Education: 2002- Russian Institute for Cultural Research, Graduate School, PhD in History, (Major theory and history of culture, subject “Interpretation of social reforms in Russian fiction of the 50s and 60s”; 1998- Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH), history department, department of Political Science and Law, major “History” Work Experience: 1999-2001 Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH), Deputy Dean of methodical work for the department of History and the department of Political Science and Law , professor; 2002-2004 “Audit-universal” Head analyst of an information analysis center; 2004-2010 “21st Century Integration” international private school, coordinator of an international undergraduate program, professor; 2010-Present day RANEPA. Author of an educational standard “Public Policy and Social Science” based on a Liberal Arts Model Research Interests: theory and history of culture, Russian history during the Soviet period Lectures: “History of Russia (Soviet Period)”, “Introduction to Critical Thinking”, “History of Philosophy”
Stacey M. Robertson is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and a professor of history. Robertson is the author of four books, including Betsy Mix Cowles: Champion of Equality (Westview Press, 2014) and Hearts Beating for Liberty: Women Abolitionists in the Old Northwest (University of North Carolina Press, 2010). She is the recipient of many teaching awards and research fellowships, and lectures nationally and internationally. Robertson is the co-director of the national non-profit, Historians Against Slavery, and co-edits the book series, Perspectives on Early America, with a London-based publisher. Professor Robertson joined the SUNY Geneseo faculty in 2017.
Constance Lafontaine is the Associate Director of ACT and works with the Director to manage the project from Concordia University. As part of her work with ACT, Constance develops and leads participatory action research and research creation projects with Montreal-based partners. She also explores the intersections of animality and human and non-human ageing, including probing multi-species temporalities. Constance is also completing a PhD in Communication Studies at Concordia University, where she focuses on the intersections between discourses of global warming and contemporary animal spectacles, focussing on polar bear displays in Canada. She has completed undergraduate degrees in Communication and Political Science and a Master of Arts in Communication at the University of Ottawa.
Eric Freedman is Dean of the School of Media Arts at Columbia College Chicago. A published and nationally respected scholar, Dr. Freedman is the author of Transient Images: Personal Media in Public Frameworks (Temple University Press). His most recent essays include “Resident Racist: Embodiment and Game Controller Mechanics” (Pearson) and “Technobiography: Industry, Agency and the Networked Body” (Peter Lang). He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of e-Media Studies, and holds a Ph.D. from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. Dr. Freedman is also an accomplished media artist and has been an active public access producer engaged with community media practices; his creative work has been exhibited at notable venues in the United States and abroad, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, the American Film Institute, MIX New York, and Ars Electronica.
Dana D. Connell earned her BA in Fashion Merchandising and her Masters of Business Administration in Marketing from Dominican University. In 2003, she was awarded the Provosts Fellowship Award for Service Learning. She continued her service learning with Bridge to Success in Chicago and has presented this pedagogical model at numerous conferences. Connell is the author of A Buyer’s Life: A Concise Guide to Retail Planning and Forecasting. This Fairchild Publication was developed as a framework for teaching basic retail buying concepts which were honed through her 25 plus years in corporate retail. Throughout her retail career, she received numerous awards for financial performance, in-store execution, and exceptional customer service with retailers such as Marshall Field’s, Neiman Marcus, and Mark Shale. Beyond her professional accomplishments, Connell is an active community member. She serves numerous organizations where her fashion business, organizational, and strategic visioning skills are utilized to benefit those in need.
Kate Pullinger teaches on the MA in Creative Writing and New Media at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, where she is Reader in Creative Writing and New Media. She is a member of the Production and Research in Transliteracy (PART) group at De Montfort, researching transliteracy. She is the Royal Literary Fund Virtual Fellow and Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University where she is also Director of the Centre for Research in the Cultural and Creative Industries.
Gary Sangster is the Enterprise Officer at Bath Spa University, a Trustee of the Arnolfini, Bristol, and Consulting Director of Drawing Projects, Bridge House, UK. His career includes roles as an art educator, curator, writer, academic, and museum director in Australia, NZ, USA, and the UK. Most recently he was Interim Director of Arts Catalyst Centre for Art, Science & Technology and a Lecturer, UNSW Art & Design. Prior appointments include: Chief Curator, National Art Gallery, Wellington, NZ; Curator, The New Museum, New York; Director, Contemporary Museum, Baltimore; Director, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art; Director, Headlands, San Francisco; Director, Artspace, Sydney; and Dean, Art Institute of Boston, Lesley University, Boston. His research includes biennale-scale projects, such as the USA exhibitions for the 8th Cairo Biennale and the 3rd Istanbul Biennale; the 2nd and 3rd Australian Perspecta; and The Decade Show in NYC. He also curated international touring projects by Mary Kelly, Kerry James Marshall, and Genevieve Cadieux, and commissioned multi-museum projects by Isaac Julien, Dennis Adams, Joseph Kosuth, Lorna Simpson, Felix Gonzales Torres, Andres Serrano, Tatsuo Myajima, and Judith Barry. His ground-breaking indigenous projects include: Koori Art 84–Urban Aboriginal Art; Two Worlds Collide–The Meeting Points of Aboriginal and Western Culture, and A Certain Place–Landscape and Vision from Black and White Perspectives.
Luca Cossettini is a researcher in Musicology and History of Music at the University of Udine (Italy) where he teaches Electronic Music, Audio Restoration and Music Publishing. He studies the influences of audio technology in the compositional processes of the second half of the 20th century, with the aim of laying the foundation for a critical and analytical methodology capable of interpreting, analyzing and publishing electronic and mixed music. As part of the coordination board of the MIRAGE Lab (http://mirage.uniud.it/), he is responsible for projects on preservation and restoration of historic sound recordings and on the critical editing of electronic music works (published by Universal Music – Casa Ricordi). He is member of the Core Expert Group of the Community of Practice in Digital Audiovisual Preservation of the Presto4U-Prestocentre network, and he collaborates with musical institutions, publishers, research centers and with international festivals for the staging of the contemporary music repertoire.
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