ABOUT

Stephanie Springgay Director of the School of the Arts (SOTA), at McMaster University, Canada. She is a leading scholar of research-creation with a focus on walking, affect, queer theory, and contemporary art as pedagogy. Her SSHRC-funded research-creation projects include WalkingLab (www.walkinglab.org) and The Pedagogical Impulse (www.thepedagogicalimpulse.com). She has published widely on contemporary art, queer-feminist anti-racist pedagogies, and social practice arts.

Areas of Expertise:

  • contemporary and social practice art
  • research-creation
  • affect theory
  • walking methodologies
  • queer-feminist pedagogies

RESEARCH-CREATION

The Ped­a­gog­i­cal Impulse is a SSHRC-funded research-creation project at the inter­sec­tions between social prac­tice, knowl­edge pro­duc­tion, ped­a­gogy, and school. As a site for artistic-research in art and edu­ca­tion it has ini­ti­ated a num­ber of exper­i­men­tal, crit­i­cal, and col­lab­o­ra­tive projects.

Instant Class Kit is a SSHRC-funded portable curriculum guide and pop-up exhibition dedicated to socially-engaged art as pedagogy. Produced as an edition of four, and part of the larger The Pedagogical Impulse project the kit brings together contemporary curriculum materials in the form of artist multiples such as zines, scores, games, newspapers and other sensory objects from a diverse group of artist-educators across North America. Instant Class Kit is closely modelled on the multi-sensory and open-ended strategies of Fluxkits, as well as hands-on learning kits commonly used in K-12 education. Combining these influences, Instant Class Kit offers an interactive and speculative approach to teaching that is participatory, collaborative, and social justice oriented.

WalkingLab is a SSHRC-funded International research project with a goal to create a collaborative network and partnership between artists, arts organizations, activists, scholars and educators interested in walking, movement, and sensory knowledge.

Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology, and Access to Life (BIT) is a SSHRC-funded project (PI Carla Rice) intended to establish a community-university research program that builds and expands upon a working relationship between Project Re·Vision and Tangled Art + Disability, Ontario’s leading disability arts organization that cultivates disability, d/Deaf, and Mad arts in Ontario. Stephanie Springgay is a Stream Leader 'Mobilizing Artistic and Activist Methodologies' on the grant.

The Artists’ Soup Kitchen served more than 500 people over six Mon­days – Jan­u­ary 9th to Feb­ru­ary 13th, 2012. During the project, artists were invited to come to the Artists’ Soup Kitchen for a free hot lunch. Different artists hosted the lunch each week and brought their cre­ative prac­tices to the Soup Kitchen.