‘Imagination in the Classroom’ Symposium

On Tuesday, 15 September, the Urban Futures Studio organises the ‘Imagination in the Classroom’ Symposium that is part of the week-long programme celebrating its 10 year anniversary and 25 years of the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. The Symposium consists of a panel discussion with Simon Richter, Jesse Hoffman and Liduine Bremer and participants can join various workshops and discover a range of educational interventions developed by the Urban Futures Studio over the years. All are welcome, from colleagues at the Copernicus Institute and the faculty of Geosciences, to interested people outside the UU. Register via the link below.

Programme

Join the panel discussion. Inspired by the exhibition and workshops held as part of the Week of the Imagination, the starting point for this event is the claim that ‘inclusion of techniques of the imagination is a fundamental starting point for all education’.

In a discussion led by Anne Beaulieu, the panel will engage with this claim and  join in conversations with the session participants. Together, we will adress the urgency of including these techniques, politics and potential effects. The feasibility of foregrounding techniques of the imagination in current educational programmes and settings will also be addressed.

Speakers:

Simon Richter is Professor of Environmental Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania. His research concerns cultural aspects of climate adaptation. Among other projects, he is currently involved with the long term research project, Floating/Sinking: A Cultural Phenomenology of Coastal Urban Resilience and Adaptation in the Era of Sea Level Rise.

Jesse Hoffman is Assistant Professor at the Urban Futures Studio and the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. He studies how societal and political groups may become more imaginative and creative in addressing climate change and related issues like the global transition to a post-fossil society.

Liduine Bremer, member of the Faculty Board and Director of the Faculty of Geosciences. She has extensive experience in strategy and management in higher education, and a particular interest in improving contexts for education and professional development, including sustainable institutions and alternatives to Big Tech.

Time: 15:00 – 16:00 
Location: Lava area (VM A)

Explore diverse meanings and experiences of democratic practices in sustainability, using Image Theatre, a technique originating from Theatre of the Oppressed, in the workshop “Rehearsing Democracy” hosted by Christina Klubert and Lara Aysal. Through embodied and collective image-making, the workshop creates space to make visible tensions, possibilities, and perspectives that can be difficult to express through words alone.Together, participants will move between images of the present and imagined futures, reflecting on what might need to shift to enable more meaningful democratic engagement in sustainability. No previous theatre experience is required.
Time: 13:30 – 14:45 
Location: Lava area (VM A)

Learn more about Zine-making as a tool for making research accessible and supporting students to develop joint ideas in response to sustainability and justice issues, and practice your own creative muscle during the Zine-making workshop hosted by Josie Chambers, Cara Flores and Anne Beaulieu. 
Time: 12:00 – 13:45 
Location: Common room (VM A)

Discover what possibilities open up when we rethink the space of the classroom during the workshop “Alternative Classroom” hosted by Jesse Hoffman, Kelly Streekstra, and Lisa De Roeck. Drawing on experiences from teaching in unconventional spaces, we will explore and present the “Folding Classroom”, developed in partnership with De Plannenmannen.
Time: 13:00 – 15:00 
Location: Urban Futures Studio, room 1.02. (VM A)

Step into the role of curator during the “Exhibition” workshop, hosted by Abe Hendriks. Explore what makes an exhibition work, how six dramaturgical dimensions can shape the way messages are experienced and understood, and how exhibition-making can be translated into educational settings. 
Time: 14:00 – 15:00 
Location: Exhibition at VM A hallway

Experiment with different perspectives on pasts, presents, and futures at a walk-in workshop, using the “Toekomstraam”. The Toekomstraam is an interactive installation, based on the Futures Prism developed by the Urban Futures Studio. 
Time: Continuous (12:00 – 15:00) 
Location: Exhibition at VM A hallway

*The symposium ends at 16:00, and the GEO welcome back drinks start at 16:00. 

Please note that during the symposium, various workshops will take place simultaneously, and some have a maximum number of participants. Confirm your spot by registering via this form (if the maximum has been reached, we will work with a waiting list on a first-come, first-served basis)

About the Week of the Imagination

This event is part of the Week of the Imagination: the celebration of the Urban Futures Studio’s tenth anniversary and the 25th anniversary of our home department, the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. Throughout the week, we will explore how we can put the (political) imagination to work for good – and how we can build a winning politics of the imagination in an increasingly reactionary and authoritarian world.