It's been quite a while since my last blog entry and that's because I have been absolutely swamped. Along with taking two Ph.D. courses this semester I took a French class, had two research assistant positions and took on leadership roles both with the Just Minerals Campaign AND the Graduate Students Association at the University of Ottawa, so while my course work was a little bit less intense this semester I was just a busy as the last.
As you may know I'm currently in Antigonish (pronounced Anigonish) Nova Scotia at the Coady Institute participating in a course for Skills for Social Change. This blog post serves the dual purpose of updating you on what I've been up to and fulfilling the course requirement of presenting a reflection on my time here.
Things are about to get intense.
Skills for Social Change is a course geared towards young people aged 19-35 with some leadership experience and an interest in social change and community development. It's hosted at the Coady Institute which offers courses in community and international development to people from around the world. The class has provided a broad overview of topics related to development including power analysis, a focus on theoretical lenses, asset based community development and more. We have also been exposed to a wide variety of tools that can be used for social change including advocacy, theatre of the oppressed and creating Zines. We've had a wide range of guest lecturers and community visitors who have shared their experiences in community development and activism with us.
The facilitators of the course have also created a great deal of space for personal reflection including daily group and individual reflections. Further the assignments for the course are all designed to reflect our personal interests and goals, including this assignment on reflecting the assignment that we've been asked to write on the process of reflecting.
So I've been thinking. Quite a lot and reflecting everyday very deeply on the topics we cover in class, as well as my concurrent and competing roles as a Ph.D. student and human rights activist. I'm going to try to make sense of these reflections below.
Academia
Academically this course has been very interesting for me. Although I'm quite familiar with some of the topics we have covered in the course from my previous academic experience, our facilitators and guest lecturers have offered new approaches to old problems. Most significantly the program introduced the idea of asset-based community development which focuses on the assets that already exist within a community that can support community development. This approach is consistent with my interest in locally driven approaches to peacebuilding and offers the prospect of moving beyond identifying the needs of individuals and communities to exploring ways in which they can drive their own development and peacebuilding processes. I am planning to integrate this new approach into the research design for my Ph.D. thesis either as a component of my primary research question or as a significant secondary question to be explored. I'm excited to be able to integrate this approach into my work as it offers a greater potential for transformative action through my research process.
In addition, a large portion of this program has focused on the role of power in development, advocacy and peace work. It has explored both privilege and power structures both which relate to my research. First, my understanding of privilege has shifted dramatically. Where I previously thought of privilege in terms of binaries; white vs. not, rich vs poor, male vs female etc, through discussions in our class about how we each understood our privilege I now understand privilege as something that is both contextual and deeply personal. I also feel that it's presence or absence is not necessarily visible. By understanding privilege in this way I feel that there is more capacity to empathize with people on either side of the binary and create space for solidarity. Personally, I also feel that this reflection will help me to better understand my privilege and perceived privilege in relation to my research participants and develop more innovative approaches to engaging with them.
Finally, in relation to power structure I feel that I can now use a tool called the "power cube" to consider power in relation to peacebuilding at the local and international level. The power cube considers the multiple dimensions of power including: open, invited and un-invited spaces; visible, hidden and invisible power; and the global, national and local levels.
Activism
I also feel that the new insights I've gathered academically can inform my approach to activism. But wait, there's more! On top of these new conceptual approaches we also have been exposed to a large number of tools and skills for activism. These include understanding that advocacy can be undertaken for, with and by affected groups. We also learned how to make Zines, about theatre activities that explore oppression, how to develop web tools, how to better understand the corporate systems that influence the food we purchase from grocery stores and even about solidarity with indigenous groups in Canada.
It was a lot to take in I know, but I also have an idea of where these insights will take me next. As many people know I have spent the last year working as part of the Just Minerals Campaign as a platform to create greater awareness for peacebuilding in the DRC. While I've heard lots of feedback from Canadians on the issue I really have no idea how Congolese civilians feel about this initiative or whether it has any potential to contribute to peace. I feel that the campaign and subsequent advocacy work could be improved by making connections with groups in the DRC and moving away from advocacy for towards advocacy with or even by conflict affected people from the region.
I'm hoping when I go to the DRC that I might be able to use some of the tools I was exposed to at the Coady Institute to conduct my research and that the results I collect will not only contribute to my research but also to a movement for meaningful participation by Congolese groups in Western advocacy on the issue.
Personal Reflection
While I appreciate the insights that this course has brought to my academic and activist pursuits I feel that the most valuable insights I've gained through this course have been deeply personal and affect my life in a much deeper manner.
By asking us to reflect on our experiences throughout the course I have taken the opportunity reflect on many things including what characteristics, assets and skills make up who I am; how I should create space for myself in the midst of my busy academic and professional schedule and how I can be more open with my friends, family and allies.
On the very first day of class we were asked to draw body maps outlining who we are at our core, what we're doing, where we are going and what is holding us back. We were then asked to present on these issues. I don't enjoy reflecting about myself very much and I like talking about myself even less. Yet through doing this activity and subsequent ones I felt for the first time like I was able to identify what some of my assets and skills were in addition to the usual personality characteristics I usually identify as representing who I am. These include that I am very passionate and driven, focused on my area of study and activism and also that I am an excellent facilitator, listener, that I am resilient and other traits that make me stronger and able to bounce back from adversity. I also can articulate that I put great importance in my roles as a friend, family member, human rights activist, student, facilitator and community member.
Participating in this course also gave me an opportunity to start creating more space for myself. After all of this reflection on who I am I started realizing that there are certain elements in my life that I would like to change so that I can be a more active community member and commit more time to initiatives that matter to me. While here, I acknowledged that the institution I'm currently studying at may not be the best possible choice given it's overarching approach to development which focuses heavily on international institutions and positivist approaches to knowledge which contradict my interest in local knowledge and peacebuilding from below. I'm not sure that it's worth trying to make a change in this regard but I feel better having acknowledged it. I also think that it gives me more space to challenge these dominant modes of thinking and acting. I'm also planning on limiting my presence at school and formal work to about 45 hours per week which will allow me to put more time into other things like improv, photography, swing dancing, involvement in different community activism initiatives (I'm leaning towards idle no more because it seems hypocritical to be supporting indigenous knowledge abroad but not in Canada) and my budding relationship. I think that investing more time in me will likely lead to being more effective in my professional capacities as well and be more strategic about what direction I choose to go in life. There is a lot of pressure in academia to go all in but when I look back I want to know that I contributed to my community and enjoyed life rather than being stressed all the time and stuck in my windowless office in the ivory tower of academia while life passes me by. I think that this new approach also compliments steps I've already been taking to create space for myself including participating in yoga and meditation practices and healthy lifestyle choices.
Finally, I've decided that it's time to be more open with my friends, family and other co-conspirators. I've known for a long time that I don't share as openly when I feel like something in my past is difficult to understand or relate to. I've also realized through this course that I also often hold back to make sure that I don't upset other people or ensure that they have a choice to speak. However, I feel like I've taken the opportunity to share a little bit more with people here than I normally would, and for the most part the outcome has been good. It has led in some cases to my classmates opening up with me about what they feel might relate or other deeply personal issues. It has created spaces for empathy and support and better understandings of each of our journeys.
It is for this reason that I've chosen to present my final reflection for this course as a blog post. I want to share my deep reflection with my friends and family who read this blog and let them in on more of what's been going on in my life.
This process of reflection hasn't been easy. At times it's left me exhausted and with a bad case of the grumps but I really do feel that it's created the opportunity for some of the personal growth to occur that I've been seeking for a relatively long time.
With love from Antigonish,
K.
P.S. Our final assignment for the course is a community action plan! Mine is on creating a solidarity movement in Canada for locally driven approaches to peacebuilding in the DRC! More to follow.
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