Congress for the Humanities Presentations (Apparently I'm an Academic)

I am presenting four times during the academic conference for the Canadian Society for the Study of Education at the Congress for Humanities and Social Sciences, held at the University of Victoria this year.

My first presentation is tomorrow at the Arts on the Edge pre-conference hosted by the Canadian Association for the Study of Women in Education (CASWE), the Arts Researchers and Teachers Society (ARTS) and the Canadian Association for the Study Of Adult Education (CASIE).

Here are my presentation times and co-presenters.

Theme: Challenging Borders and Boundaries 
Saturday, June 1, 2013
11:15am-12:30pm
Art Gallery of Victoria
Downstairs Gallery 1

Sex worker as funny, tongue-in-cheek and political, while doing gender headstands. 

Lisa Ordell

Using the Vulnerable Self: Performance Art, Activism, and Experiential Education for Cultural Change 

Tasha Diamant

Girls making Media Leah-Anne Ingram

“Edgy” Research – Forward thinkers in CASWE (Panel)
Monday, June 3, 2013
11:30am-1:00pm
University of Victoria
MacLaurin Building D107 
Chair: Lisa J Starr (Victoria), Sarah Bonsor Kurki (Victoria)

Panel of CASWE award winners share their findings from research informed by 

feminism/gender/gender expression, and how it advances the field of women in education.

Tonya Callaghan (Calgary), Tasha Diamant (Royal Roads), Nané Jordan (UBC)

Addressing the Challenges of Post-Secondary Education (Canadian Association for the Study of Indigenous Education)
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
10-11:15am
University of Victoria
MacLaurin Building A195

Multi-paper session

First Nations "Way" at the U: Painful Dilemmas Tasha Diamant (Royal Roads)

Exploring intergenerational trauma as a factor in Aboriginal post-secondary 

students’ progress Rainey Gaywish (Manitoba), Elaine Mordoch (Manitoba)

Using the Arts as Pedagogical Instruments (CASWE –Crosslisted with ARTS)
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
10-11:15am
University of Victoria
MacLaurin Building D107 

Multi-paper session

Chair: Alysha June Sloane (Manitoba)

Theatre of the Commons Alysha June Sloane (Manitoba)

Explaining the Human Body Project By Way of a Letter to My Children 

Tasha Diamant (Royal Roads)

Pedagogy and Parallax: The narrative canvasses of a Clothesline Project

Patricia Louise Maarhuis (Washington State), Pauline Sameshima (Lakehead)

From the Heart Press Release: I am honoured to be part of this production

The press release for From the Heart is below. I am honoured to be a cast member and involved in the development of this production.

An innovative community dialogue project inspired by Paulette Regan’s bestselling book, Unsettling the Settler Within.

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From the Heart: enter into the journey of reconciliation is a new theatre production about
transformative stories that have moved non-Indigenous people to see their relationships with their Aboriginal neighbours in new ways. This won’t be anything like an ordinary play.

Starting on June 12, in a temporarily vacant 14,000 square foot store at Uptown Mall, audiences will be invited to explore a vast, beautiful labyrinth made of hundreds of doors and windows, fabric, and paper lantern lights. In the nooks and alcoves along the way, they will encounter scenes, songs, and shadow theatre performances all created by a culturally diverse cast of 30 Victoria area residents who range in age from 18 to 80.

From the Heart is produced and directed by Will Weigler in partnership with VIDEA: A BC-based International Development Education Association, and the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria. The project was inspired by Paulette Regan’s bestselling book, Unsettling the Settler Within.

“Many of the cast members were drawn to the project as a way to deepen their own understanding about First Nations, Métis, and Inuit experiences in this country, and then be able to create a theatre performance that would let them share with others what they discovered,” says Weigler. At the end of the show, in the ‘heart’ of the labyrinth, everyone is offered tea and an opportunity to reflect on the experience in conversation. The community cast hopes that From the Heart will entertain, inspire, and encourage thoughtful dialogue.

The cast developed the show in collaboration with Director Will Weigler, Kwakwaka'wakw
performance artist and poet Krystal Cook, and singing and movement coach Bisia Belina. The labyrinth was co-designed by eco-architect Mark Lakeman and tensile fabric architect Mar Ricketts.

“This project is an example of many people in a community coming together to make a difference,” Weigler adds. “First Metropolitan Church offered us workshop space to create the show, and Uptown Mall is hosting us during performances. Many individual tradespeople, professionals, businesses, and organizations have all stepped up to lend a hand when we needed it. It would not have happened without them.” From the Heart is a pilot project here in the Greater Victoria area; the organizers plan to create a ‘how-to’ book on the process so that other communities can produce their own versions of the show throughout Canada and globally.

From the Heart received funding from the BC Arts Council, Vancouver Foundation, Vancity, the CRD, Hamber Foundation, and many individual donors.

…What if we were to offer the gift of humility as we come to the work of truth telling and reconciliation? Bearing this gift would entail working through our own discomfort and vulnerability, opening ourselves to the kind of experiential learning that engages our whole being— our heads, our hearts, our spirits.

—Paulette Regan, Unsettling the Settler Within

WHAT: From the Heart: enter into the journey of reconciliation

WHEN: June 12–22 & July 3–27. Performances are Wednesdays through Saturdays.

Show times: 7:00, 7:20, 7:40, 8:00, 8:20, 8:40.

WHERE: Uptown Mall Upper level (Blanshard St Entrance)

DIRECTIONS: Southbound on Blanshard/Pat Bay Hwy just past Ravine Way, turn right at the Uptown Mall entrance by the RBC and up the ramp. At the top, veer to the right and look for the From the Heart banner. From inside the mall, take the escalator, elevator, or stairs to the 4th level and walk north until you see the Banner.

TICKETS: $10. Price excludes service charges. Call TicketRocket at 250-590-6291, or purchase online http://ticketrocket.org

#END#

MEDIA CONTACT:
Will Weigler (Producer/Director) at will@videa.ca or 250-382-7324
OTHER INTERVIEW CONTACTS: Co-facilitator Krystal Cook 250-386-0570
Cast member Patty Bleumel 250-382-8717 
Cast member Susan Belford 250-508-6233
QUICK-LINK REFERENCE MATERIALS:

Creative team: http://www.from-the-heart.ca/about/creative-team 

Cast and crew list: http://www.from-the-heart.ca/about/cast-and-crew 
This press release: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_JANorU2N75dUJkZU5HTm9kMG8/edit

Lucidity is an Impairment: Reflections from a Fancy Resort

"One of the most effective devices is to encourage debate. But, within a system of unspoken presuppositions that incorporate the basic principles of the doctrinal systems, these principles are therefore removed from inspection; they become the framework for thinkable thought, not objects of rational consideration."   Attributed to Noam Chomsky

Because of the kind generosity of my husband's employer, I find myself at a very high-end, immersive luxury resort on the Mexican Riviera. This is a place we could never afford ourselves. Like my husband says, maybe we could throw caution to the wind and scrape enough to pay for the room, but then how would we eat? And we couldn't bring our kids, who were not invited this time around either.

Not only do we have a beautiful, exquisitely designed, completely detached and private, oceanside suite with huge patio and our own small pool (well, it's bigger than any hot tub I've seen, but you can't quite swim in it, but it's lovely for cooling down), but our meals at three different excellent restaurants with food as well-prepared as any I've had at high-end restaurants in big cities like New York, are completely covered. This incudes alcohol and I can personally say that the mojitos here are beyond delicious.

The resort is on something like 50 or more acres and we have bikes at our disposal as well as golf cart "buses" that drive by every 4 minutes. There are two pools, but by pools I mean stunningly landscaped and designed outdoor spaces with huge water features to swim in. I know that designers and architects have words for these kind of spaces. I don't have the vocabulary and I am not writing this to promote or critique the place so I won't name the actual establishment. 

The whole design and landscaping and "experience" is beyond anything I have ever encountered. The grounds between suites, for instance, are designed with plants, of course, and spaces with sand and rock; the sand is raked regularly so that a ripply design is always part of the look. At night, the whole place is lit beautifully, including what seems like thousands of torches and various types of candles.

Every single person who works here is sincerely friendly and eager to please in fluent English. Having spent part of the day yesterday in the actual nearby town, I can report that this attitude is a corporate rather than a local trait.

This place is not just an exemplary business case, but a design marvel, a customer service model of excellence and maybe even a work of art.

I am extremely grateful to Dave's employer for such a generous gift. I am also grateful to my husband who received this treat as a reward. And I am grateful to my kind parents for looking after my children while we are away. I'm also grateful to all the kind, hardworking people here. I'm just really grateful to have a space to be idle and take in the beauty and the sun and the swimming. One of the greatest pleasures of this trip is not having to worry about cost. The other, especially for me, is to be able to exist for a few days in an almost decision-free environment. It is a gift and a rest.

But me being me, I will commit some sociology (as per the remarks of our country's dear leader) and express some of my sadness.

One thing I notice about most of the American women at this resort is the way that femininity is expressed/suppressed by will. There are very many worked-out/starved-thin women here. Almost every woman here wears insanely high heels. They are also very smooth. In my usual pathetic and futile way, I decided that my act of decolonization would be to come here unshorn. I have not waxed my legs or shaved my armpits (never in my life have I been able to wear a heel over one inch). I also don't have a worked-out/starved thin body but my body is relatively acceptable for a place like this. 

My act of flat-footedness and hairiness has gone unnoticed, I would say, because as a woman of 51, I am a fairly invisible person in this milieu. The ladies here are not all young, but many are and the ones about my age try way harder than me.

Almost everyone that is a client is white and American. No shock there. There are also a few Mexican people but they are whiter Mexicans. I have seen two black people, a few Asian (perhaps Chinese descent) people (who could be American or Canadian or from some Asian land), and an extended family from perhaps India. The people with the most blatant non-acceptability seem to stick to their private spaces. 

There is a young couple perhaps in their early 30s maybe even just late 20s; I imagine that he is a Mexican gangster and that she is a Mexican prostitute. She has a surgeon-made face and melon boobs, he is really muscular, wears muscle shirts with skulls on them. They are Latino-looking with dark hair and extremely deep tans. But I heard them speaking with British accents! They go to the pool but kind of stay off to the side in a cabana. The first night I saw them, only Dave and I were at the pool and they were making out. Ew.

I see gay guys at dinner but not at the pool.

A really obese Mexican guy and his stunning wife or girlfriend do hang out at the pool. She is gorgeous but I don't peg her as a sex worker because she is so effortless about it. I had never seen an obese lady by the pool but I've seen some on the golf carts and at dinner. Today, however, an obese black lady in a long dress made her way to a beach chair, but chose to sit in an out of the way area, staying in her long dress.

I saw a couple holding hands on the beach, him about 60, her about 30. Ew. Not at pool.

I think of Foucault's picture of the disciplinary society.

I am uncomfortable here. Ha ha. Like I'm comfortable anywhere. But I find it difficult to simply settle into letting the legions of kind people wait on me. This place costs a small fortune. I have no idea how the kind people get paid but I can tell you that the same waiters and hostesses who smile at you at night are also there first thing in the morning.

I've been reading one of Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels, which I highly recommend. The Nazis. The Communists. The French Nazis. The CIA. That is probably the order of worst to even worse. Quite the history lesson.

In North America we labor under the mythology (Chomsky's "framework for thinkable thought")  that everyone gets a fair chance. Besides pretty much ignoring the history of First Nations people and the slave trade, not to mention the legions of poor immigrants who upon leaving grinding poverty/starvation/war often found/find grinding labor and poverty/poor social and labor conditions. 

Still, we've exported the idiotic myth and the general population of the world hopes to have yellow brick roads in the form of big houses, stainless steel appliances, boobs and cars. I teach within the post-secondary system where somehow, even though most jobs exist in service and retail at close to minimum wage, we tell our students they will have a chance on the job market. I'm not saying some don't find rewarding jobs, some do, but wouldn't it be better to focus on less magical thinking?

The reason people (especially people who believe they are entitled) don't like to "commit sociology" is because it's fucking sad and it forces us to look at our relationship to power and by power I do not mean some abstract concept, I mean violence and domination. 

Marx made some good observations about the balance of power, Stalin used Marx insofar as the ideas were useful to his holding onto power. The German people were fucked after the first world war. Gangsters eventually ruled, allegiances shifted, Jews were a handy scapegoat. It is sickening to imagine how the people of Germany could let what happened happen.

It is even more sickening that in our culture we do not ever, NOT EVER, have to imagine what happens to the many invisible people who are affected by our industrialized way of life. NEVER. In my opinion, what we are is worse than Nazis. Most people in Western culture have no idea about the way--often violent and exploitative--our objects arrive on our store-steps. More people die from poverty every year than were killed by the Nazis.  But what I would argue is worse, is that the deaths are invisible.

I did not think my way to this realization. As Chomsky observes, our culture does not allow for thinking such thoughts (Rule No. 1: downers not allowed). 

I felt my way. 

Facing my pain, labelled as illness and mental illness, over DECADES has led me to be able to understand that my pain is for the deep, worse-than-Nazi shit we have created. 

I believe, more than men, that women are in touch with their sensitivity and compassion. But through the willfulness required to be literally on our toes, always sexually attractive and, most of all, not taking up too much space with our bodies, we lose touch with our sensitive spirit or suppress and deny it. I thought and often still fight beliefs that I am crazy and ugly and ungainly. I am undeniably always awkward. I can write and profess and present better than I can show up day to day.

The culture of sexualizing women is directly related to the culture of domination and crushing of spirit and heart. 

What would be nice would be if human beings let go of the magical thinking/masculine-energy idea of power-over and give in to their natural ability to feel empathy and thus look after each other. But that would require vulnerability.

And, as my friend Susan Belford, who is a therapist, says, in this culture "our behaviours and personality come from a place of needing to protect ourselves from awareness of vulnerability and, so, we're so busy acting against vulnerability, it's just not something we can even see."

And, so, we live on a beautiful planet, separated from our true natures, willing to let it all be destroyed for "fun," a few baubles, and a dream of security.

Is it nice to come on a trip to a beautiful resort in Mexico and have delicious food and be waited on? Yes and no. Lucidity is definitely an impairment.

Naked Stand-up Tragicomic: A Human Body Project Video

Naked Stand-up Tragicomic: A Human Body Project Video (5 minutes, 2013)

Tasha Diamant will present the The Human Body Project off-fringe during the 2013 Victoria Fringe, August 22-September 1, 2013, and at the Vancouver Fringe, September 5-15, 2013.

"Here's what's 'wrong' with me. I was born into a world where people don't look after each other or even see each other. I always felt it and was never okay but I fully believed what I was told. That I needed to "be successful" and "pretty." I knew I should figure out how to fix my bothersome self. I tried harder to do that than anyone I've ever met. 
One day I realized I was done. The only thing that will really fix me is living in a world where people choose love over ego/domination. It's super easy. Kids know how to do do it. There are lots of reasons why we've ended up training ourselves backward and I could say more about that but one thing I've noticed is that no matter how much 'research' there is, not much changes. 
Our work is in the emotional realm. I happen to have 'expertise' as a super-sensitive emotional being who has survived! I am not an addict, a suicide, on the street, or crazy. 
I do not thrive and I often struggle to function, but I am here doing my job. 
This shift won't happen in my lifetime but I am doing everything I can think of to make it happen. I feel defensive because who I am and what I know is easily and often dismissed because it makes people uncomfortable. 
I honour myself and I honour all of you who honor your own sensitivity and, I'll say it again, vulnerability is the only way forward."     Tasha Diamant

"Because of all the horrible things that humans have done in anger, anger has been given a bad name. But it is a legitimate emotion that signals that someone has been violated. 
It's time we raised healthy anger back to the rafters of acceptability, and worked together to clarify a way of expressing it that both holds everyone safe AND allows us to honour its inherent wisdom. Not abusing self or other, but seeing the feelings all the way through to the healing and lessons they contain. 
This means not doing the forgiveness bypass--pretending to forgive before we have organically moved through the feelings. Feeling, expressing and healing first."     Jeff Brown

"It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They’re totalitarian institutions--you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There’s about as much freedom as under Stalinism."     Noam Chomsky