Deadline: December 15
Contact: Lyn Baldwin, Professor, Thompson Rivers University
Email: lybaldwin@tru.ca
Phone: 778-921-2559
Panel proposed at the 2023 ASLE + AESS Conference: “Reclaiming the Commons”
July 9-12, 2023 in Portland, Oregon
Organized by The Hazel Collective
Contemporary theorists of the common argue that the common is not a physical space or resource, but rather an activity: to common. Thus, the commons do not exist a priori, but are a process by which selves, collectives, and society might be remade. Yet few of us have been raised with such commoning practices. As we work to reclaim the commons, can the practices cultivated in creative collaborations serve as models for a feminist commoning that prioritizes care? Many disciplines embrace communities of practice; few more so than the creative communities that rely on each other to workshop pieces in development. From writers’ groups to artists’ collectives, creative collaborations focused on place have the potential to transcend silos of institution and discipline, to celebrate cross-pollination and collaboration as a way of knowing, and to problematize questions of authorship and creative ownership.
This panel seeks to explore the challenges and opportunities of writers’ groups and artists’ collectives in reclaiming the commons and in remaking ourselves as creatives, scholars and activists. In a world often wedded to individual authorship, how do creative collaborators acknowledge cross-pollination and collaboration in their work? Can the process of sharing work, of giving and receiving feedback, of collective crafting, be understood as “shared labor”? How might such collaborations work to validate non-Western modes of scholarship and interdisciplinarity? Finally, and perhaps most importantly, if subjectivities might be remade through participation in such collectives, what effects might they have on the land itself, the places each participant inhabits? How might creative collaboration foster care for the Earth in ways that individual creativity may not?
No collaboration is without tension and this panel invites creative work that will challenge us to understand what creative collaborations can (and can’t) do in caring for the commons.
Please submit a 200 word proposal for a 10-15-minute creative work (in addition to your name, email, and a short bio) in an email to Lyn Baldwin (lybaldwin@tru.ca) by December 15, 2022. Feel free to email with questions regarding your proposal before submitting. I’ll respond to all submissions and notify those included on the panel by December 20.
Posted on November 8, 2022
