Situated Creative-Critical Ecologies and Research Creation
An M4C Dialogue Day bringing together researchers to explore creative-critical ecologies and decolonial practices
5 July 2023 – Attenborough Nature Reserve, Nottingham
In ‘When all you love is being trashed’ (2017), Deborah Bird Rose explores multispecies kinship and connectivity through the ‘brilliant shimmer of the biosphere’. Writing in the context of global environmental injustice, she takes the Aboriginal concept of shimmer – ‘the ancestral power of life’ – to help us ‘better notice and care for those around us who are in peril’, arguing that that an ecologically attentive practice enables us to bear witness to the power of more-than-human worlds. This M4C Dialogue Day explores the ways that research creation – the combination of creative and academic research to support new forms of knowledge (Loveless 2019) – enables writers, scholars, artists and activists to use the concept of shimmering to generate affective, embodied and sensorial texts that bring together both creative and critical ecologies in order to address environmental inequities.
Taking inspiration from Rose’s work, our event will promote inclusive pedagogies and decolonial ecologies through situated practice in order to strengthen cross-institutional research collaboration in the environmental humanities.
Exploring the role of creative-critical practice in addressing global environmental injustice, we welcome staff and M4C doctoral candidates from across the M4C region to join us at Attenborough Nature Reserve for a day of writing, collaboration and discussion. Featuring workshops by Carol Watts, Harun Morrison and Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, participants will be invited to prepare 3-5 minute ‘ignite’ presentations: this might take the form of a question, manifesto or short performance.
The event is free and open to all PGRs and staff across the M4C network, although places are limited. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. To register for the event, or for further information, please email sarah.jackson02@ntu.ac.uk by Friday 9 June, stating your dietary requirements and any access needs. A small travel bursary is available to support students travelling from their home institution to Attenborough. Please contact us if you wish to apply.
‘“Shimmering”: Situated Creative-Critical Ecologies and Research Creation’ is an M4C-funded event organised by Dr Heather Alberro (NTU), Dr Isabel Galleymore (UoB), Dr Sarah Jackson (NTU) and Dr Jonathan Skinner (UoW)