The Ivan Illich Learning Web

Please come join us for two exciting sessions in San Diego!

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Beyond Absurdistan: What Ivan Illich Knew (and the Rest of Us Overlooked)

Schedule Information:

Scheduled Time: Tue, Apr 14 – 8:15am – 10:15am
Building/Room: San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina / Irvine

Session Participants:

Discussant: David A. Greenwood (Washington State University)

Alternatives in Education or Alternatives to Education?
- Madhu Suri Prakash (The Pennsylvania State University)
- Dana L. Stuchul (The Pennsylvania State University)

Displaced Lives: Finding a Curriculum of Place in a Globalizing World
- Kristin D. Jones (University of Illinois – Chicago)

Ivan Illich: A Voice in the Dark and a Voice of Reason
- Lynda George (Central Connecticut State University)

Revisiting Ivan Illich on Gender: Food and Feminism
- Marguerite K Rivage-Seul (Berea College)
- Madhu Suri Prakash (The Pennsylvania State University)

The Educator’s Secret and Modern Stupidity
- Daniel G. Grego (TransCenter for Youth, Inc.)

Chair: Dana L. Stuchul (The Pennsylvania State University)
Chair: Madhu Suri Prakash (The Pennsylvania State University)

Abstract:

Exploring issues that expose the absurdities of contemporary existence, this paper session will provide insight (through 5 distinct paper contributions) into paths leading beyond globalized, highly technologized, abstract, and de-natured Absurdistan. Using the broad framework of Illich’s theoretical contributions, each paper will contribute to the larger conversation of how we live, learn, eat, suffer, and die more humanely.

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New Directions in Illichian Scholarship and Pedagogy

Schedule Information:

Scheduled Time: Tue, Apr 14 – 6:15pm – 7:45pm
Building/Room: San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina / Newport Beach

Note: This will be combined with the SIG’s business meeting. There will be food and refreshments.

Session Participants:

Chair: Douglas Kellner (University of California – Los Angeles)

Illich’s Live Presence Through Second Life: A Reflective Update on the Legacy of Conviviality
- Yolanda Gayol (Fielding Graduate University)

Under/Over-development as Institutional Intentionality: IIlich Against Educational Policy
- Dolores Calderon (University of Utah)
- Clayton Pierce (University of Utah)

From Freire to Illich: For an Epimethean Critical Pedagogy
- Richard Kahn (University of North Dakota)

The School and the Camp: Thinking Through Ivan Illich’s Radical Critique of Schooling with Giorgio Agamben
- Tyson E. Lewis (Montclair State University) ***Paper will be on hand only***

Abstract:

This symposium panel will contain four presentations that seek to provide new theoretical and pedagogical directions for Ivan Illich’s work. The first will argue that critical pedagogy has been overly defined by the spirit of Freirian Prometheanism and now requires the greater development of what Illich called an “Epimethean” attitude. A second presentation will relate Illich’s statements on urban education to the contemporary political theory of Giorgio Agamben. A third will examine Illich’s views on institutional technocracy in light of both the neo-Sputnik science policy in education and the colonialist nature of school textbooks. A final presentation will outline an online pedagogical experiment conducted in the virtual world Second Life that was modeled after the seminars Illich conducted in Cuernavaca, Mexico. As detailed in The Critical Pedagogy Reader (Darder, et. al., 2003, Illich has to be considered a foundational figure for the field of critical pedagogy. Thus, the idea of this symposium is to demonstrate the wide availability of Illich’s work to present work in critical pedagogy, postcolonial and critical race theory and critical theory. Further, by framing this panel as a symposium, we hope to generate dialogue between the panelists and the audience, to illicit other ongoing projects, and to deliberate on scholarly and pedagogical paths that may hold openings for the creative application of Illich’s ideas.