Friday April 27
13:00-14:00 Registration and Check-in
14:00-17:00 Introductory Session at Tartu College, 3 Madison ave
Welcome, logistics, introducing projects and people.
We will begin the conference with a chance to meet one another and learn more about the our common struggles. Following a welcome from the organizers, there will be an opportunity for conference participants to briefly address the assembly and bring greetings. We will then break into smaller groups and get to know one another.
18:00-21:00: Plenary session (in conjunction with “Occupations,” the Communication and Culture Grad Student Conference) York and Ryerson Universities
Ryerson Student’s Centre, 63 Gould Street, Thomas Lounge
Brian Holmes (Continental Drift, 16Beaver)
Mirror, Mirror: Art and the 1%
Sarah Sharma (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Because the Night Belongs to Lovers: Occupying the Time of Precarity
Saturday, April 28: Sidney Smith Hall, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street
9:30-9:45 Coffee and Registration
9:45-11:15 Session 1
SS2102, Amphitheatre
(Session 1A) Labor, Creation, Production: Within and Beyond the University (I)
David Cooke (Senior Scholar, York University)
Response to Neoliberal Contractual Research
Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro (State University of New York New Paltz)
Lessons from Union struggles at State University of New York New Paltz
Anne-Marie Grondin and Scott Uzelman (Queen’s University)
A Small Victory in the Edufactory: Queen’s post-docs unionized
Facilitator:Max Haiven (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design/edu-factory)
Respondent: Max Haiven
SS2108
(Session 1B) The Organization of the University: Social Struggles Within Neoliberalization I
Sarah E. Hoffman (Carleton University)
University Food and Collective Kitchens
Mark Wilson (University of Victoria)
Politicizing Administrative Rationalization: students, staff and instructors calling bullshit on the corporate university’s discursive defenses
Joeita Gupta (University of Toronto)
The Lawlessness of the Law Makers: An Investigation of Non-Academic Discipline at the University
Facilitator: Lenora Hanson (University of Wisconsin Madison)
SS2110
(Session 1C) Critiques of Knowledge Production on Campus
Jason Dolny (Carleton University)
Towards a New Ethos of Science: The Naturalization of Neoliberal Science
Heather Morrison (Simon Fraser University)
The Global Open Access Movement: Enclosure and Emancipation of Scholarly Knowledge
Mark Paschal (University of California Santa Cruz)
This is Not Our University
Facilitator: Alison Hearn (Western University)
Respondent: Alessandra Renzi (Infoscape Lab Ryerson University)
11:20-12:50 Session 2
SS2102 Amphitheatre
(Session 2A)The Organization of the University: Social Struggles Within Neoliberalization (II)
Heath Schultz (University of Iowa)
Becoming-professional: Notes on the Production of MFAs
Patrick Cunninghame (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico/SITUAM trade union)
Cognitive capitalism, economic crisis and conflicts around knowledge production in the Mexican University
Jamie Magnusson (University of Toronto)
Financialization and the Organization of Learning and Labour
Facilitator: Elena Basile (York University)
Respondent: Lenora Hanson (University of Wisconsin Madison)
SS2108
(Session 2B) Beyond the University: Autonomous Education Initiatives (I)
Anthony Meza-Wilson (University of British Columbia)
Educational Projects for Decolonization: Anarchist Allyship and Resistance Education in the Americas
Erik
Free Education in Montreal
Richard Day (Queen’s University)
The University as Intentional Community
Facilitator: Lisa K. Taylor
Respondent: Brian Holmes
SS2110
(Session 2C) Workshop I
Imagining life beyond the tenure carrot and the adjunct stick: A Collective Conversation
Chris Dixon (University of California Santa Cruz) and Alexis Shotwell (Laurentian University)
Facilitator: Max Haiven (NYU/Nova Scotia College of Art and Design/edu-factory)
12:50-1:50 Lunch
1:50-3:20 Session 3
SS2102 Amphitheatre
(Session 3A)Screenings
Mansoor Behnam and Felipe Quetzalcoatl
(Queen’s University)
A Cup of Coffee with Kafka (34 min.,2010)
Zach Ruiter and Anthony Gulston (Trent University)
Nefarious Steve and the Alfredo Sauce (20 min., 2012)
Facilitator:
SS2108
(Session 3B) The Organization of the University: Social Struggles Within Neoliberalization (III)
Fabiana Medina (Autonomous University of Mexico City)
Autonomous University of Mexico City: Harassment in an Alternative Project
Alice Cervinkova (Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic)
Unrest in Czech Universities: Policies and Practices of Protest
Goovinda Juárez Rodríguez (Autonomous University of Mexico City)
The Autonomous University of Mexico City and the Right to Development
Facilitator: Elise Thorburn (Western University)
Respondent:
Translators: Patrick Cuninghame
SS2110
(Session 3C) Workshop II
Occupy Pedagogy: Facilitating Collective Engagement in the Classroom
Occupy Harvard Facilitation Working Group
Philip Cartelli (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University); Hannah Hofheinz (Harvard Divinity School); John Hulsey (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University); Derin Korman (Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University)
Facilitator: Alison Hearn
SS2111
(Session 3D) Workshop III
Counter Cartographies Collective
Mapping Universities in Crisis
Facilitator: Enda Brophy
3:20-3:35 Coffee Break
3:40-5:40
Session 4
SS2102 Amphitheatre
Plenary Session
Brian Whitener (University of Michigan)
The New University: Circulation and Resistance
Amanda Armstrong (University of California Berkeley)
Debt and the Student Strike: Antagonisms in the Sphere of Social Reproduction
George Caffentzis (University of Southern Maine/Midnight Notes) Occupy Student Debt
Facilitator: Max Haiven (NYU/Nova Scotia College of Art and Design/edu-factory)
7:00-9:00 Toronto Free Gallery (1277 Bloor St West)
“The Production of Living Knowledge” by Gigi Roggero
A Book Launch and Discussion
Gigi Roggero (University of Bologna, edu-factory)
Lenora Hansen (University of Wisconsin-Madison, edu-factory)
George Caffentzis (University of Southern Maine, Midnight Notes)
Enda Brophy (Simon Fraser University, edu-factory)
Facilitator: Alison Hearn (Western University)
9:30
Party at Bike Pirates (1292 Bloor Street West, across the street from Toronto Free Gallery) Organized by Upping the Anti
Sunday, April 29
Sidney Smith Hall, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street
9:30-9:45 Coffee
9:45-11:15 Session 5
SS 2102 Amphitheatre
(Session 5A) Beyond the University: Autonomous Education Initiatives (II)
Mike Neary (University of Lincoln)
Social Science Centre, Lincoln (UK): An ‘Institution of the Common’
Greig de Peuter and Christine Shaw
Debriefing: Toronto School of Creativity & Inquiry
Brian Holmes and Malav Kanuga, (16 Beaver)
Organizing and Aggregating the Common: Toward an Autonomous Network of Space, Knowledge, and Subjectivity
Facilitator: Roberta Buiani (York University)
Respondent: John Ricco (University of Toronto)
SS2108(Session 5B) Social Struggles in the Crisis of Canadian Public Education
Adam Lewis (Queen’s University)
Decolonize the Neoliberal University
Gary Kinsman, Laurel O’Gorman, Tyler Horton, Danielle Beaulieu, and Melanie Durette (Laurentian University)
The Struggle Within, Against and Beyond Neo-Liberalism at Laurentian University
Carolyn Sale (University of Alberta)
Disclosing the Foreclosed University
Respondent: Herbert Pimlott (Wilfrid Laurier University)
SS2110
(Session 5C) Workshop 4
Pass the Dildo Please: Radical Queer Pedagogy to Deconstruct, Rebuild, and Transform Our Spaces of Learning
Taiva Tegler (University of Ottawa), Dillon Black(Carleton University) and Quinn Blue
Facilitator: Lisa Taylor (Bishops University)
11:20-12:50 Session 6
(Session 6A) SS2102 Amphitheatre
Occupy Student Debt
Robert Oxford (New York University)
Tuition as Profit: How Student Debt Functions In America
George Caffentzis (University of Southern Maine)
A Brief History of the Anti-Student Loan Debtors’ Movement in the US
Annie Spencer (City University of New York)
“Those promises have turned out to be empty”: Affect, Moralism, and Occupy’s Campaign for Student Debt Refusal
Facilitator: Roberta Buiani (York University)
Respondent: Gigi Roggero (University of Bologna/edu-factory/Uninomade)
SS2108
(Session 6B) The Organization of the University: Social Struggles Within Neoliberalization (IV)
Soo Tian Lee (Birkbeck School of Law, University of London)
After the High, Then What?:Questions without answers about post-protest-wave student struggles in London, UK
Nicola Short (York University)
Neoliberal Academic Restructuring and the Antinomies of Intellectual Labour: Notes for an Analytical Framework
Amarela Varela and Alejandro Chora Camacho (UACM)
“Being from UACM” Itinerant Museum
Facilitator: Max Haiven (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design/edu-factory)
Respondent: Elise Thorburn(Western University)
Translator: Patrick Canninghame
SS2110
(Session 6C) Labor, Creation, Production: Within and Beyond the University (II)
Zach Schwartz-Weinstein (New York University)
Provincializing Academic Labor: Academic Capitalism’s Other Histories
Bob Hanke (York University)
The Union Against Itself: The Mirror Stage of Contract Faculty Labour
Jesse Gutman (McGill)
Organizing on Campus: Linking Worker’s Struggles to the Student Movement
Facilitator: Alex Levant
(Wilfrid Laurier University, York University)
Respondent: Elena Basile (York University)
12:50-1:50 Lunch
1:50-3:20 Session 7
SS2102 Amphitheatre
Plenary Session
Tuition Struggles in Quebec
Joel Pednault (McGill)
Looking back on the 2010-2012 Quebec Student campaign against tuition fee hikes
Matthew Brett (Concordia University)
Austerity, Oppression and Resistance: An anti-capitalist perspective of the global student movement
Rushdia Mehereen (Concordia University)
Grassroots organizing in the face of electoral student politics
3:30-5:30 Concluding Plenary Session
Lessons Learned, Next Steps
Organizing Action Groups and Future Initiatives
We’ve reserved this final session for a discussion of how we can move forward by connecting our struggles and building solidarity. Following some closing remarks from the organizers, any conference participant who wants to lead a discussion of new or existing initiatives (communications networks, forms of struggle, new caucuses) will be invited to form a break-out group and time will be provided. The plenary will reconvene and groups can report back on their ideas before the conference is adjourned.
APPENDIX
Equity Statement
Solidarity and our ability to build a common struggle and a better world are based on the principles of autonomy and equality and depend on all of us treating one another with dignity and respect at all levels. While debate and disagreement are crucial, we recognize that behaviour that creates needless conflict and a oppressive or negative environment hinder our collective efforts. As such, we neither condone nor tolerate behaviour that undermines the dignity or self-esteem of any individual or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment. A actions that create a hostile or offensive environment include discriminatory speech or conduct which is racist, sexist, transphobic or homophobic and/or discrimination based on (in)ability, age, class, religion, language and ethnic origin. A hostile and intimidating environment also includes attempts to de-voice other members by ignoring speaking practices or by talking over, yelling, rolling eyes at or shutting down contributions made by others. In an attempt to help us work beyond the forms of power, privilege and oppression that hurt us and divide our movement, discussion facilitators may choose to use progressive facilitations techniques that ensure everyone’s voice get heard. We encourage all participants to strive to make our assembly a little model of the world we want to create.
The University is Ours! 