MYFest 24 Schedule

Join us to use sounds of the world to foster learning!

In this workshop, we'll begin to explore the heart of Black feminist pedagogies which embody radical kindness and which center on fostering a culture of inquiry, embodying political clarity, and building connectedness through community. Led by Ameena L. Payne, this workshop will ask participants to engage in both synchronous and asynchronous interactive exercises and reflective dialogue; we'll unpack how radical kindness can fuel curiosity, cultivate critical thinking, and better enable seeing our own, each other's, and our students’ full humanity.

Conflict is something most of us shy away from, but it is also inevitable. It makes us uncomfortable and unsure, and unresolved conflict can lead to negative mental health consequences, destructive or toxic community spaces, loss of community connections members, and limitations on solutions and opportunities. But not all conflict is negative; conflict can be generative, and there are constructive ways to resolve conflict that contribute to the health of organizations, communities, teams and individuals. Join us for this conversation about how conflict manifests at organizational, team and individual levels, how and why we respond to conflict negatively, and generative, healthy approaches to conflict with the goal of transforming our understanding of conflict to create better communities. Together, we will build a framework for understanding conflict, its impact, and chart impactful strategies for resolution. We will use theory and strategy and invite lived experiences.

For details, see the MYFest Readers Theater website https://sites.google.com/view/ccreaderstheater/myfest24 All ages welcome!

TBA

This workshop will engage participants in thinking about the potential roles of students in open pedagogy and the creation of open educational resources after sharing two case studies done at UCT. There will also be interaction around shifting hierarchies and changing the traditional power balance in HE. Student partnerships are seen as a pathway to inclusion and a means to address injustice in the classroom and in course materials. These inclusive practices seem essential for future higher education to be just and sustainable.

Though historically (and in popular media), Tarot has been popularized as a tool for divination, it actually provides a powerful tool for storytelling, reflection, and self-discovery. The major arcana consists of a collection of 22 archetypes that encompass major life themes including creation, stability, loss, solitude, curiosity, healing, transition, balance, justice, wisdom, patience, and hope. Drawing on radical and queer approaches to tarot, this session will introduce participants to the major arcana and the questions that these archetypes provoke. Participants will be invited to participate in a 22-day asynchronous autoethnography project focused on daily reflections, storytelling, and activities based on each of the cards.

This is a 22-day asynchronous autoethnography project focused around the major arcana of the tarot. Each day, participants will receive an email focused on one of the cards of the Major Arcana. They will be provided with a brief introduction to the card and its themes and provided with reflection journal questions related to the card’s theme in relation to higher education contexts and practices.

Following the increased work to raise disability awareness, nowadays, we see many characters with disabilities in books, games, movies, and TV series. More representation is always great, or is it? In this talk, I will discuss how the current ways we present disability can be counter productive rather than empowering. I discuss how some of the seemingly innocent characters we see on Netflix or in games are still advancing harmful stereotypes. We need a shift in our understanding of people with disabilities as we call for better representation. I end this talk with real life, practical examples of positive disability representations and how they help us understand ourselves and others more.

Rebecca will introduce the concepts of sociocracy and intentional community, and will describe the benefits of a governance system that is not consensus nor majority rules. She will touch on how an introduction to some of the sociocracy concepts can help students be more effective at group work.