Cultural policy is increasingly influenced by international trends towards the marketisation of all aspects of the education, training and arts sectors. Across the globe governments use culture to reinforce dominant political agendas, increasingly locking out all but the elite from cultural and creative careers. Collective Encounters will host a special open space event with recorded provocations from international speakers who are enacting cultural democracy in their communities. After these provocations, we will invite all present to consider what a truly socialist cultural policy might look like. Open spaces are participant-led, and the agenda and discussion are driven by those in the room.
Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies, University of Arizona. Her research interests include critical pedagogy, language planning and policy, immigration policy and education, sociocultural theory, sheltered instruction and teacher preparation for refugee and immigrant English language learners. Her published work focuses on the intersection of these issues and school-based pedagogical practices.
Jesus Jaime-Diaz Ph.D. is Recruitment & Outreach Coordinator in the Teacher, Learning & Sociocultural
Studies Department in The College of Education at The University of Arizona. He earned a Ph.D. in Language,
Reading & Culture with a Minor in Mexican American Studies from The University of Arizona. His research
has previously focused on testimonio and critical ethnographic methods in exploring how Mexican American
community college students in Oregon use their lived experiences to serve as a catalyst to “empower” them to
pursue higher education. His current research interest is focused on racialized social class as a unit for analysis
in the schooling experience(s) of Mexican American students along the borderlands of Arizona.
Inny Accioly, an activist scholar, is a Professor of Education at the Fluminense Federal University, in Brazil. She develops projects focused on connecting university and grassroots movements in Latin America, relating environmental education, anti-racist education, unionism, and indigenous and traditional knowledge.
Kuljit (Kooj) Chuhan is a UK based digital artist, filmmaker, and creative producer, who has worked with international artists such as Keith Piper and Shahidul Alam. Founder of artist collective Virtual Migrants, operating as Metaceptive Projects and now with his new company Crossing Footprints, he artistically interweaves social justice, environment and diversity.
