Under the theme “Politics Beyond the Ballot Box: Framing and Making Change Outside the Formal Political Arena”, I joined my EDST colleagues Shayna, Autumn, and Dr. Hartej Gil for a roundtable in the context of Research Day 2013 at the Department of Educational Studies at UBC. Thanks to all who attended, and quite frankly packed room WMAX 216 on April 19, 2013. The quality of questions and comments from all in the room was superb.
Dr. Hartej Gil – Faculty/Discussant. Autumn Knowlton, Shayna Plaut, and Angela Contreras-Chavez, PhD student presenters.
Roundtable abstract: Working in strikingly different socio-cultural and political contexts, Shayna Plaut, Autumn Knowlton, and Angela Contreras explore how marginalized peoples engage with and frame political change outside of formal political structures, and how they are “trained” (both formally and informally) to do so. Reflecting on two years of fieldwork, Shayna’s research focuses on how Saami (Indigenous peoples in the Nordic region) and Roma/Gypsy journalists use media to educate, explore, and explain problems and solutions to their audiences. While still in the development stage, Autumn’s project in Guatemala considers how members of a Q’eqchi’ Maya community view the limits and possibilities of political change through micropractices of education and resistance in the wake of a 36 year armed conflict. Angela’s work looks at how citizenship — and the policing of who belongs and how they belong in Canada— is taught to migrant workers by frontline workers through public legal education and information (PLEI).