Embodied Learning in Different Places and Spaces

This event is part of the 2023 Celebrate Learning Week, taking place from May 2–9, 2023.

How crazy is it that it has become common’place’ to teach and learn in two places and spaces at the same time? We know we are not brains in a vat but material beings, yet we have not yet really explored what hybrid teaching and learning means for: i) our bodies (and the bodies of others), ii) our ability to be present with one another, and iii) recognising the placeness of UBC (with its colonial history and ongoing attempts to reckon with the land, history and peoples of the Musqueam) and our place within it.

In this session, we challenge you to bring your whole self – body and mind – with you. We’ll explore through thought-provoking questions and embodied activities what it means to be together in what sometimes feels like a new version of the world. What does it mean to be present? To be absent? To be virtual? To be hybrid? What has your mind been telling your body? What has your body been telling your mind?

Two of us will be on UBC campus, the other in Calgary. We encourage you to bring your body to campus, but if you cannot, to bring your virtual self. We will share our experiences in (dis)embodied teaching and learning in place and space and will briefly present some of the research in these areas. We will lead you through some embodied exercises, theatre-inspired activities and, all of us as a group will intentionally and actively reflect on questions of connection, group learning in different spaces and places, and together we will discuss some of the challenges we’ve faced in our respective disciplinary and teaching & learning environments in relation to this topic.

Facilitators:

• Jude Walker, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Studies, UBC-V
• Stephanie Glick, Sessional Instructor, Department of Educational Studies & GRSJ, UBC-V
• Nicky Renault, Doctoral Studies, Department of Educational Studies, UBC-V; Manager of Student Community Standards, Mount Royal University

Note to Non-UBC Participants:

In order to register for this program, non-UBC faculty, staff, and students will need to create a UBC Basic CWL. To do this, please go to the CWL page and scroll down to the accordion tab that reads “Basic”. Follow the instructions there for creating and activating a Basic CWL, then please return to this page to register for the program.

This event will be hosted online on Zoom and in-person on UBC Vancouver Campus.