Summer School 2024

DSAI Summer School 30th-31st May 2024

When: 30th-31st May 2024

Where: Online 30th May, in-person 31st May at TUS, Thurles Campus

Registration: Click here

Reflecting on Decolonising Research and Development through an Indigenous and Feminist Critical Lens

The DSAI Summer School provides a focussed 2-day programme of workshops exploring research methods for development. The event will engage NGOs, Policy Makers, and Academics both as contributors to the programme and as participants. Connecting research, policy and practice, the programme will bring together international experts through interactive sessions to enhance the professional development of participants. Sharanya Nayak, a non-indigenous solidarity worker with the Adivasis of central India will provide the keynote address at this years’ event.

This year the Technological University of the Shannon at Thurles, Co. Tipperary will be hosting the DSAI Summer school on the theme of Reflecting on Decolonising Research and Development through an Indigenous and a Feminist Critical Lens. This will be held over 2 days using a blended format with 30th May online and 31st May in person in Thurles. We are proposing to adopt a field studies approach at the Summer School with workshops taking place at a range of venues which resonate with the theme.

The overall objective of the Summer School is to enable students to develop their research skills through exposure to a number of research pieces presented by researchers, policy makers and practitioners using both an Indigenous and Feminist critical lens. The attendees will then work in teams to develop their own research methodology under the guidance of academics and practitioners.

Material will be presented as 'trigger material' online on 30th May. This material will consist of examples of good Indigenous and Feminist field-based research. On May 31st participants will meet in Thurles and under the guidance of experienced facilitators, will together create proposals for innovative research methods that may be applied in the field.

This event is jointly organised between DSAI Gender and Civil Society Study Groups. It is supported by EADI, DSAI and TUS.

PROGRAMME - Thursday, 30^th May

ONLINE

10:00 - 10:10 Opening Ritual: Mawie Barrett (Druid, Poet, Branch Librarian in Cashel library)

10:10 - 10:15 Chairpersons Address: Dr. Pieternella Pieterse (Chair, DSAI)

10:15 - 10:45 Keynote Speaker: Sharanya Nayak (a non-indigenous solidarity worker with the Adivasis of central India)

10:45 - 11:00 Q & A: Dr. Nita Mishra (EADI Vice-President)

5 Minute Break followed by 3 sessions

11:05 - 12:15 Research Methods for Doctoral Studies

Prof. Benoît Rihoux University of Louvain,

Dr. Martina Cleary Technological University of the Shannon,

13:30 - 14:15 Exploring the Interface between Worldviews and Gender

Karol Balfe ActionAid Ireland CEO
Anusanthee Pillay ActionAid’s Global Women’s Protection Advisor

Dr. Gerard Maguire University of Galway

14:30 - 15:15 Making Space for Indigenous voices in development discourse

Dr. Nita Mishra University of Limerick

Prajjwal Khedkar Development Practitioner

Dr. Astrid V. Pérez Piñán University of Victoria

15:30 - 16:30 Group Discussions, Comments and Recap:

Dr. Catherine Corcoran Technological University of the Shannon

PROGRAMME - Friday, 31^st May

TUS Campus, Thurles

09:15 - 10:00 Registration and Reception

10:00 - 10:15 Welcome Address: Maura Clancy (Technology University of the Shannon)

10:15 - 11:15 Just Governance Practices and Indigenous Knowledge Systems

Dr. Susan Murphy: Trinity College Dublin

Dr. Caitriona NI Cassaithe: Dublin City University

Sharanya Nayak: Koraput, Odisha, India

11:15 - 11:30 Questions and Answers: Convenor Dr. Gerard Maguire

11:30 - 11:45 Paul Keating – Research and Community Development

12:00 - 14:00 Parallel Sessions:

Workshop A: Tour of Rock of Cashel - Convenor - Paul Keating

Mawie Barrett and Office of Public Works

Workshop B: Image Theatre and Intervention - Convenor - Catherine Corcoran

Janna Lindstrom, Ana Lessa, Anne Loftus

14:30 - 16:30 Parallel Sessions:

Workshop C: Poetry As Research – Convenor - Nita Mishra

Fióna Bolger, Helen Hutchinson, Gonchigkhand Byambaa, Mawie Barrett

Workshop D: Community Engagement & Creative Expression – Convenor Paul Keating

Uma Magal, Caroline Coyle, Delores Crerar, Sharanya Nayak

17:00 Closing Ritual Thurles Campus.

Workshops:

There will be four workshops run in parallel sessions. Participants will need to book their workshop in advance and to choose one from either time slot. Three of the workshops will be conducted in Cashel and transportation will be provided there and back. A short break will be provided for a light lunch.

Workshop A: Guided Tour of the Rock of Cashel will be reserved for those participating in the full conference.

Workshop A: Guided Tour of the Rock of Cashel

12:00-2:00 Cashel

Set on a dramatic outcrop of limestone in the Golden Vale, The Rock of Cashel, iconic in its historic significance, possesses the most impressive cluster of medieval buildings in Ireland. Among the monuments to be found there is a round tower, a high cross, a Romanesque chapel, a Gothic cathedral, an abbey, the Hall of the Vicars Choral and a fifteenth-century Tower House.

As part of the summer school, participants will have the opportunity to visit the rock of Cashel. The office of Public works will provide a guided tour and there will be time to explore this ancient spiritual, political and geological site. The bus will leave from Thurles at 12:00, Booking is essential.

Irish mythology has it that the Rock of Cashel was formed after the Devil took a huge bite out of the aptly named Devil’s Bit Mountain twenty miles north of Cashel. There is a large gap in the mountain between one outcrop of rock and another small plateau. This was supposedly done to evade Saint Patrick who was banishing the pagan thoughts and customs that had ruled Ireland for millennia. (Heritage Ireland, Office of Public Works, 2024)

Workshop B: Image Theatre and Intervention, Introduction to Forum Theatre

TUS Campus Thurles - 12:00-2:00

Theatre for Change Galway CLG is a distinguished community-based theater company situated in the heart of Galway. Specializing in Forum Theatre Applied Drama, our company is dedicated to utilizing the transformative power of theater to engage individuals across diverse community and educational settings.

Drawing from the principles pioneered by Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, participants will be guided through various creative expressions, allowing them to delve into pertinent societal themes. These techniques serve as powerful catalysts for personal and communal growth, equipping participants with invaluable capacity-building skills and fostering a culture of self-advocacy.

Theatre for Change Galway Facilitators, Janna Lindsrom, Ana Lessa and Anne Loftus will host a workshop where they will support those participating to design and perform a short forum play using Theatre for the Oppressed Techniques. This will then be forumed so that other participants (as spectators) will then intervene to change the outcome…… to try out their ideas of alternatives often referred to as rehearsal for life and how this can then be continued to practice Legislative Theatre.

By embracing the ethos of applied drama, we strive not only to empower individuals on a personal level but also to effect broader societal change. Through our commitment to creative engagement and meaningful dialogue, we endeavour to cultivate a more inclusive and just society, one performance at a time.

Theatre For Change Galway

tforcgalway@gmail.com

Janna Lindrom - Drama Therapy and Applied Drama Facilitator

Ana Lessa - Drama and Education - Facilitator

Anne Loftus - Community Development Facilitator

Workshop C: Poetry and Spoken word As Research

Cashel Library - 2:30-4:30

Fióna Bolger is a poet and creative facilitator. She has worked both in Ireland and abroad with new and more experienced writers, offering spaces to experiment and build confidence. Her facilitation and creative practice focus on plurilingualism, using all the words in your head. She has worked with multilingual, migrant and Traveller writers over the past few years. Her practice is rooted in a trauma informed, anti-racist pedagogy.

Helen Hutchinson s an Irish Traveller poet. Her family was one of the first Traveller families to be housed under the Itinerancy Act of 1967. Assimilation cost her family a lot, six suicides: two brothers, three nephews and a niece. She now writes through poetry of the journey through oppression, discrimination and racism. She tries to give a voice to other Travellers and at the same time it is therapeutic for her. She was one of the founders of Mincéir Mislí, later to become Pavee Point. A book of her poems is to be launched by Tipperary ETB in June, From the Dirt Lane back to the Open Roads.

Gonchigkhand Byambaa is a social worker and writer from Mongolia. She is one of the founders of Migrant Women Na hÉireann, which seeks to raise awareness and provide support to victims of domestic and gender-based violence. She writes about Mongolian culture in an attempt to honour her parents’ legacy and illustrate the beauty and hardship that comes with a traditional nomadic lifestyle.

Mawie Barrett is a Druid who grew up in the Comeragh Mountains in County Waterford. She defines herself as a mountain woman. She believes there is a language in landscape that seeps into her by osmosis and fires her imagination. Her work is sprinkled with metaphor, the ordinary everyday trickles out of her subconscious and tells the deeper story. Her forte this far is history which she expresses in fiction and nonfiction. Writing brings Mawie great joy and expression it is the place where she channels her insights and reflection. Nature, people and travel are her major influences. Mawie is a poet and Librarian in Cashel library (the druids cauldron 2022)

Fiona will lead this workshop which will provide an opportunity to frame, compile and share poetry which reflects an indigenous and feminist perspective and experience. It will highlight how poetry can be used as a process of research, documentation and analysis. The poets participating will also share and reflect on their work.

Dr Nita Mishra is Assistant Professor in the department of Politics & Public Administration at the University of Limerick. Her research, widely published in various forms, focuses rights-based approaches to development, women's empowerment, understanding peace, decoloniality, and civil society. Nita has worked on 'development' with research organisations, funding bodies, and civil society in the Global South (India) and has been a volunteer in the Global North (Ireland) for over a decade and a half. She is Vice President (Education & Next Generation) in the European Association Of Development Research & Training Institutes (EADI). Her poetry, critically acclaimed as the future of Irish feminisms, merges her own stories with narratives of women she met across three continents.

Workshop D: Community Engagement & Creative Expression.

Brú Ború Cashel - 2:30-4:30

Uma Magal owns Fenugreek Productions, a boutique studio for media and film work, and training. She has master’s degrees in Political Science (University of Hyderabad) and Communication (JMI, Delhi), and an MFA (Temple University). She produced a PBS weekly series, “News 6”, taught film and media at San Francisco State and Temple Universities, and served on the boards of Asian Arts Initiative and Independent Film and Video Association in Philadelphia. Her latest film “Other Kohinoors, The Rocks of Hyderabad” is a resonant documentary love letter to the unique rocky terrain and culture of Hyderabad. Celebrating how the landscape inspirits the culture in its art, craft, folklore, poetry, songs, architecture, cuisine. Marking the affection and respect with which the landscape is held. With an energetic rap song as 'Sutradhar narrator' carrying the storytelling there is also a sharing of the sorrow over what has been lost in the past decades. (IMDb 2024)

Delores Crerar manages the Athlone Family Resource Centre who facilitated the Intergenerational Crochet Communitas project. A project which saw a lot of crochet going on in and around Athlone over the Covid lockdown. The results of which were displayed in full multicolour hanging in the window of Athlone Library and in other areas of the town. It was originally hoped to make one large blanket from squares of crochet and flowers sent in by participants but the response was so great that there was enough for five. This prompted the creation of a trail and facebook page with clues to encourage people to follow the clues, to see the others and spread the word about the project. (Westmeath Independent 2021)

Sharanya Nayak a non-indigenous solidarity worker with the Adivasi (indigenous peoples) of central India she has worked through internal conflict, destructive industrialization and drought-migration conditions. She has first–hand experience of working with women for their empowerment through participatory processes and with tribal communities on mothertongue based education and developing ‘culturally appropriate curriculum’ using approaches of social history documentation and appreciative enquiry with community elders, tribal youth and school going children. She is a Member of Rangmatipadar Adivasi Commune, Koraput and has worked as a Programme Officer with ActionAid India. Sharanya has a Law Degree and a Masters in Sociology.

This workshop will explore the use of art as a means of engaging, reflecting with and mobilising community. This process can be on a range of different levels responding to a range of different needs within community. From social interaction and creative engagement to political awakening and action.

Caroline Coyle’s PhD Awakening the Goddess Within: An Autoethnographic and Poetic Inquiry into Older Women's Ageing and Identity in Ireland doi:10.46289/NN43R6T4 explores older women’s ageing and identity in the context of the Festival of the Seasons Celtic Rituals at Uisneach, Ireland (School of Creative Arts, Film Media and Television Dept, Women, Ageing and Media (WAM) research centre, University of Gloucestershire, UK). Caroline’s research interests include the use of creative participatory methods, such as collaborative art, poetry, mythology and rituals as research tools of discovery. She uses autoethnography, her own practice as a performance artist, poetic inquiry, and the arts based mediums of storytelling, poetry, art, song, radio and theatre to engage in contextual relationality and create liminal, potentially transformative spaces, within which, new stories, identities and meanings may be negotiated.

Summer School Speakers:

Dr Maura Clancy is the Dean, Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology/ Director Progression Pathways at (TUS) Technological University of the Shannon (Midwest). Maura has worked in the area of engineering mathematics and statistics for the past twelve years is passionate about mathematics and the teaching and learning of mathematics and has also been a strong advocate for the establishment of a DSAI institutional branch in TUS.

Dr. Susan Murphy is an Associate Professor in Development Practice and teach Gender and Development, Climate Justice, and Development Practice. Her research interests are in international development ethics, policy, and practice, issues in governance and justice, human rights and climate change, and gender and social inclusion. She is the Principal Investigator of GEOFORMATIONS: the geographies of dynamic governance assemblages in development cooperation civil society spaces, funded by the European Research Council (ERC-2022-STG), and research group leader for the Climate and Environmental Justice lab, supervising masters by research and Ph.D. candidates in national and international climate and environmental justice-related projects. As part of her work, she managed the design and delivery of 200+ international research projects in countries across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and over 150+ research projects with International Development NGOs in Ireland. (Trinity College Dublin 2024)

Dr Caitríona Ní Cassaithe is an Assistant Professor in History Education in the Institute of Education, Dublin City University. Her expertise is in the areas of historical enquiry and the development of children’s historical thinking skills. Her other research interests include: heritage and place-based education, teaching controversial issues and disciplinary literacy. Caitríona is co-chair of the History Educators International Research Network (HEIRNET), sits on the executive board of Public History Weekly and is the Irish coordinator of the History Teachers Education Network (HTEN). She is also on the steering committee of the Centre for Human Rights and Citizenship (CHRCE) at DCU and is a member of DCU Educational Disadvantage Centre and the DCU Centre for Literacy Research, Policy and Practice. Caitríona is the Irish PI for the LETHE Erasmus Plus project looking at (e-)learning the invisible and hidden histories of Europe through material culture using object-based learning pedagogies.

Dr Gerard Maguire is an Assistant Professor of international law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the University of Galway and Lecturer of international human rights law and the School of Law and Criminology at Maynooth University. Previous to this role, he was a lecturer at Nottingham Law School in the UK. His research focuses primarily on international human rights law and the intersectionality of the rights of Indigenous Peoples within international legal frameworks. He has previously published on issues regarding cultural genocide, language rights and the survival of Small Island Developing States within the Anthropocene epoch. His current research investigates the relationship between colonial legacy and the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Canada through the lens of gender justice and Canada’s commitment to UNSDG 5.

Prajjwal Khedkar is a development practitioner based in India who studies the problem of landlessness among indigenous communities, particularly the Scheduled Tribes in the Vidarbha region of state Maharashtra. He has conducted extensive research on the Forest Rights Act (FRA), analyzing policy implementation and advocating for land rights and inclusive governance in collaboration with civic and social organizations.

Dr. Astrid Vanessa Pérez Piñán was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Administration where she combines interdisciplinary research with feminist scholarship to critically explore the tensions between global development agendas and local realities, as well as the changing global development cooperation landscape, including recently adopted feminist policies. She is interested in the 'measurement turn' and indicators employed in global/local development. Astrid Vanessa studies the processes leading to the creation of existing and emerging diverse economies that counter the neoliberal economic (dis)order at the community level (including and not limited to Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities). Her other areas of research include: Politics and policies of Colonization and Decolonization/ Self Determination, Reproductive Justice/Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Food Sovereignty, and Global Sustainable Development.

Dr Martina Cleary: Martina Cleary is an Irish contemporary artist, working through photography, video, performance, sound and new digital technologies to create immersive installation environments which explore memory as a starting point to imagine alternative futures. Her work navigates spaces between the real and fictional, influenced by aesthetic and conceptual ideas drawn from painting, cinema, Jungian psychology, experimental archaeology and Feminist philosophy. Along with her work as an artist, in recent years Martina has also been a lecturer and visiting artist for a number of institutes and organizations including, The EU Urban Development Project and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki, BCA, GMIT and LSAD in Ireland, Cardiff School of Art & Design in the UK, and Moore College of Art and Design Philadelphia. In (2017) she completed a Practice-Based PhD at The European Centre of Photographic Research e(CPR) Newport, Wales. Socially-engaged and community based practice has been a consistent area of interest and motivation within her work.

Dr Pieternella Pieterse Is Chairperson of DSAI.She is an academic/researcher specialising in Health, Governance, Citizen Engagement and Social Accountability. I work at DCU's School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health. She is the principal investigator of a 4-year research project focusing on unsalaried health workers in Sierra Leone. From Sept 2019 until Feb 2022, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher with professor Anne Matthews (also at DCU's SNPCH), focusing on health policy implementation in Malawi, specifically in relation to breastfeeding and infant feeding support at community level. Her doctoral research focused on social accountability interventions in Sierra Leone. In recent years she has worked as a researcher for the Ethiopia Social Accountability Program (VNG/World Bank), Making All Voices Count (IDS/University of Sussex) and UNICEF ESARO and UNICEF Ethiopia, and have further strengthened her academic and practical experience of citizen engagement programmes (DCU 2023)

Paul Keating is a community worker and lecturer in the Department of Digital Arts and Media at Limerick School of Art and Design TUS. He has worked in Community Development in Ireland, with the European Commission and in East Africa with Concern. Paul is particularly interested in Freirean approaches and the use of creative methodologies to explore and mobilise community. His current research is exploring the use of Games and Games based technology as a medium and a means for critical pedagogy. Paul is convenor of the civil society study group and chairs the TUS branch of DSAI.

Mawie Barrett is a Druid who grew up in the Comeragh Mountains in County Waterford. She defines herself as a mountain woman. She believes there is a language in landscape that seeps into her by osmosis and fires her imagination. Her work is sprinkled with metaphor, the ordinary everyday trickles out of her subconscious and tells the deeper story. Her forte this far is history which she expresses in fiction and nonfiction. Writing brings Mawie great joy and expression it is the place where she channels her insights and reflection. Nature people and travel are her major influences. Mawie is a poet and Branch Librarian in Cashel library (the druids cauldron 2022)

Prof. Benoît Rihoux is full professor in political science at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium. He plays a lead role in the development and diffusion of comparative methods, in particular Configurational Comparative Methods (CCMs) and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). He is engaged in disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects in diverse fields involving mixed- and multimethod designs. He has initiated and chaired COMPASSS, the global CCMs network (https://compasss.org/ ) from 2003 to 2023, and is Chair of the Methods Excellence Network – MethodsNET (https://www.methodsnet.org/ ), a global pluralist network of methods experts across the human sciences, launched in 2021. He has taught CCMs, comparative research designs, research designs and research ‘soft skills’ in multiple settings across the globe. Contact: benoit.rihoux@uclouvain.be

Dr Catherine Corcoran has worked in the development sector for over 30 years with in Ireland and Africa, at management, policy and community levels with CONCERN Worldwide and also in academia at the Technological University of the Shannon. She has led and advised organisations on strategic and community-led planning and provided leadership, research, technical support and advice within challenging contexts, developing and leading consortia and partnerships at an International level. Her PhD research focuses on community-led planning and resilience building.

Caroline Coyle’s PhD Awakening the Goddess Within: An Autoethnographic and Poetic Inquiry into Older Women's Ageing and Identity in Ireland doi:10.46289/NN43R6T4 explores older women’s ageing and identity in the context of the Festival of the Seasons Celtic Rituals at Uisneach, Ireland (School of Creative Arts, Film Media and Television Dept, Women, Ageing and Media (WAM) research centre, University of Gloucestershire, UK). Caroline’s research interests include the use of creative participatory methods, such as collaborative art, poetry, mythology and rituals as research tools of discovery. She uses autoethnography, her own practice as a performance artist, poetic inquiry, and the arts based mediums of storytelling, poetry, art, song, radio and theatre to engage in contextual relationality and create liminal, potentially transformative spaces, within which, new stories, identities and meanings may be negotiated.