Recalling Earth and learning worlds and worlds-making will be the topic of chapter 14th of the María Lugones Summer School that will take place at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven.
Grounded on the basic concept of decolonial thinking: that there is no modernity without coloniality, the summer school will be an exploration on a demodern and decolonial Recalling Earth and learning and making worlds. Decoloniality complemented with demodernity are two necessary options departing from eurocentrism.
Modernity and coloniality divided and separated the human from its communal and earthly groundings. But they did it in distinct and complementary form. In Europe, the separation was initiated with the inventions of the concepts of “nature” and “culture.” Both are Western concepts in their content and in the binary logic in which has been settled. In the colonies, “nature” was transformed into “natural resources.”
Decoloniality and demodernity has two complementary tasks: delinking from Western modernity/coloniality in order to reconstitute what has been destituted. What has been destituted is the primordial attitude towards the preservation and regeneration of life in harmony on and with Earth. It has been replaced instead by the exploitations and extraction of “resources,” human and natural resources. The promises of modernity became the colonial horizon for the commodification and instrumentalization of death masking the vital earthly energies that nourished enchantment of life.For that reason, recalling Earth and learning and making worlds have to start with demodernizing and decolonizing .
The 14th edition of the Summer School will be devoted to generate communal conversations in search of demodern and decolonial horizons of learning worlds and worlds-making.
As in previous years, we at the school pursue our goals in un-disciplinary paths. Our 'faculty' have been trained in different disciplines (dance, visual arts, sociology, semiotics, philosophy, history, curatorial training); they were educated in Europe and/or in the former colonies, they belong to diverse local histories (including of course the local history of Europe).
As in previous year, we do not teach, the participants learn. Through a mixture of lectures, organized conversations, workshops and informal conversation, the learning experience sketches forms of communal learning: each of us, faculty and participants, know something that the other do not know. The school attempts to work on the communal knowledge participants brings every year. The 2023 version invites us to learn together towards recalling Earth and learning worlds.
*this course can be made accessible for hard of hearing and deaf people upon request.
Lecturers
Coordinators:
- Walter Mignolo
- Rolando Vázquez
Faculty:
- Jean Casimir
- Gloria Wekker
- Catherine Walsh
- Charles Esche
- Rosalba Icaza
- Valiana Aguilar
- Fabián Barba
- Aminata Cairo
- Jeannette Ehlers
- Patricia Kaersenhout
- Cricket Keating (Escuela Popular Norteña)
- Aldo Ramos
- Ovidiu Tichindeleanu
- Nick Aikens
Target audience
Designed for graduate students (Ph.D. and M.A.) from all disciplinary backgrounds. The course is also open to interested advanced undegraduate students and professionals.
Aim of the course
The course will make the students acquainted with the most current debates around decolonial critical thought, in particular in relation to the communal.
Study load
Reading preparation for the course will also be required.
All sessions will take place from Wednesday 21st June to 6th July, Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00-13:00 and 15:00-17:00 (CEST)
The expected preparatory reading is:
Mignolo, Walter and Walsh, Catherine (2018) On Decoloniality, Duke University Press.
Vázquez, Rolando (2020) Vistas of Modernity, Decolonial Aesthesis and the End of the Contemporary, Mondriaanfonds & Jap Sam Books.
A few weeks before the start of the course, day to day preparatory readings will be shared with the students.
Costs
The course fees are necessary to cover the summer course costs. The finances are managed by the Van Abbemuseum, a public institution, who also partially finances the course. Any profit is used to support the Indigenous initiatives in Yucatán, Mexico and Sierra Nevada, in Colombia.
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
Additional information
Accommodation:
There are 15 rooms available at The Social Hub hotel (Eindhoven Hotel & Accommodation - The Social Hub) from the Tuesday 20th June to the Friday 8th July (17 nights) for 1504,50€: individual hotel room with private bathroom, incl. city tax // with access to shared kitchen. (88,50€/night incl. city tax)
Please contact Teresa before the 27th April at summerschool@vanabbemuseum.nl to reserve a room. The deadline to confirm all reservations is the 30th April, after that we will not be able to reserve a room at this price.
The reservations will be managed on a first come first served basis. The payment of the hotel room will be done by each participant upon arriving to the hotel on the 20th June.
For different accommodation we can suggest different hotels and hostels upon request but be aware that affordable (student) accommodation is difficult to find in Eindhoven, so we recommend to start arranging it as soon as possible.
Application
The applications will be assessed on a rolling basis. All applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered.
There are a number of grants available for those participants that cannot afford the course fee. This grant only covers the course fee. Accommodation and travel aren't incluced in the grant.
If you wish to apply for one, please state your situation in the motivation letter when applying to the course. Grants will be selected taking into account the individual economic circumstance of every participant.
If you have any question, please write an email to Teresa Cos Rebollo: summerschool@vanabbemuseum.nl
We hope that the 14th edition of the School will happen in presence. If the school has to move online due to COVID restrictions the fee will be reduced to 500 euros and you will receive a refund.
For this course you are required to upload the following documents when applying:
Contact details
Teresa Cos Rebollo | E: summerschool@vanabbemuseum.nl