ONLINE UNLEARNING Workshops & Webinars

This online programming is available to diverse learning communities at colleges and universities. Usually, our webinars and workshops complement a study plan for an existing class or are offered as an event for an academic department, a study center, and student groups. Recently they have been effective as professional development opportunities for faculty/staff working groups. We also have offered them to non-profit organizations and grassroots collectives.

Our offerings, all of which are focused on unlearning systemic and embodied injustice, are designed around three thematic areas-- Identity and Pacha; Epistemic Justice; and Storytelling for Social Change-- and can be shared as dynamic webinars for larger groups or interactive workshops for smaller groups. For partners that would like an extended intervention, we offer an Unlearning Series, which we custom design with the partner organization.

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Each webinar/workshop, designed and adapted over the last two years, uses interactive techniques that encourage the participants to apply what they learn into their daily practices. We are experienced in adapting the sessions to a variety of needs, formats, and foci. All offerings can be facilitated in English or Spanish and include the participation or co-facilitation of local Ecuadorian community members.

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Through their distinct lenses, each thematic area seeks to help us explore and process the complicated times we are living in, while pushing us to heal wounds and dream towards a better future. Interested in partnering with us in this bold re-imagining of online education? Please contact us for more information. 
 

Unlearning identities of separation.
It has never been more important to seek interconnection and balance. Climate change and the global public health crisis have revealed just how interdependent we are on the environment and each other. This workshop/webinar links the traditions, practices, and oral memory of Andean peoples to our current lived realities, and puts theory to practice by offering tools that help us engage the natural world and our communities with new perspectives. We explore what it means to live in a llakta (territory), be part of an ayllu (community), and envision how we relate to pacha (the cosmos), as well as how to develop a greater understanding of how roles as runas (human beings).

Storytelling for Social Change

Unlearning the dominant stories of oppression, colonialism and modernity. If we want to change the world, we must first change our stories. Stories are how we make sense of who we are and who we want to become, and, in times of injustice, they are used for both manipulation and liberation. This workshop/webinar explores how stories have shaped our world, as well as how we can use them to identify and transform conflicts. It helps us to see the power of stories in our day-to-day lives, as well as the dominant narratives and myths that define our societies. Our goal is to imagine new narratives that take us towards re-storying our world: the narrative act of collective healing and liberation. This offering can also be adapted as "Theater for Social Change."

Unlearning preconceived notions of knowledge and what it means to know.
We are taught not to condone violence, yet we do it every day, because how we see the world has been shaped by the colonial legacy of how, what, and where we learn about the world. This workshop/webinar questions what we understand as knowledge and who we consider to be "knowers" by engaging with epistemological pluralism. We explore the colonial narrative of knowledge, identifying our dominant epistemologies as well as non-Western ways of thinking and being that have been excluded and devalued. We then use creative exercises to collectively imagine what epistemological pluralism would look like in our lived realities. 

UNLEARNING/DECOLONIZING STUDY ABROAD

How can study abroad play a role in decolonizing the academy?

Over the last years, we have engaged in an extensive dialogue with partner universities in the States, partner communities in Ecuador and students who have participated in our programs to develop a webinar/workshop on Unlearning Study Abroad. In line with scholarly work on decolonizing study abroad and critical internationalization, this offering invites offices of international education to enter into a deeper questioning of our field and imagine a new path forward. In this webinar (which can be done as an interactive workshop), we begin by recognizing the relationship between study abroad, colonialism and coloniality. We then learn what it means to unlearn, with a focus on unlearning the embodied/systemic legacies of colonialism present in our work and identities. Finally, we identify areas in which we can unlearn colonial aspects of our work. For those who want to go beyond the webinar/workshop, we suggest continuing with the Unlearning Series (see above).

TESTIMONIALS

"Pachaysana cares for me as a student and as a whole human being. They have helped me to realize a more holistic and community-based model of
education that will inform my future work and goals. I will carry their influence with me throughout my life, both in traditional academic and more informal educational spaces."

Anna Marti - Student,
Wesleyan University

"Pachaysana’s online programming was perfect for my graduate seminar, engaging students in a variety of participatory activities... hands on
activities connected to student interests in culture, environment, and sustainable development in Latin America.  Most highly recommended!"

Gregory Knapp - Associate Professor of Geography and Director of Sustainability Studies, University of Texas at Austin

"Pachaysana’s workshops have invigorated our classroom
methodologies in immediate and powerful ways, exposed faculty and students to alternative pedagogies, and provoked meaningful reflections and dialogue that engage with broader issues of racial injustice, diversity and inclusion. Particularly meaningful was Pachaysana’s embodied approach to the acknowledgment of Indigenous lands and histories. It has forever changed the way we go about our commitment to honor the Land
Acknowledgment with proper depth and humility.”

Michelle Wibbelsman - Associate Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, The Ohio State University

"The scaffolded exercises invited students to explore their whole selves in a community-oriented, immersive context that centered on the artful creation and universal impulse of  human storytelling. It was a powerful experience to witness students trusting the power of embodied knowledge and the intuitive creativity that followed."

Sara D'Angelo - Assistant Professor, of Theatre and Performance Studies, Brown University

"Even though I'm 'alone' in my dorm, I feel joyful and connected. Identity and
Pacha proves that classroom material can cause real embodied shifts.
It's amazing that even over Zoom, I can feel such community, care, and love
from my classmates. I can't fully express how grateful I am for this course"

Angie Fike - Student,
Wesleyan University

Consultancies

How to bring the workshops into practice?

Webinars and workshops are great opportunities for learning new information, questioning our beliefs and beginning to practice the changes we hope to implement in our classes, curricula, policies and relationships. They open the door to greater insight; however, sustainable change requires a more extensive dialogue. For our partners who are interested in developing that insight and converting it into new ways of creating and interrelating, ask us about our extended consultancy programs.

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