Graduate students in women’s studies got a chance to share their research and get to know each other at the third annual Graduate Women’s Studies Symposium at York May 4 and 5.
Organized by the Graduate Women’s Studies Student Association conference committee, the two-day event was titled “Graduate Students Sharing Research and Process: A Learning Community Exercise”.
In the keynote address which began the symposium, Rishma Dunlop of York’s Faculty of Education talked about graduate student research, education and process, academic barriers and challenges to working in an unconventional pen, and the importance of building community on and off campus. In her presentation, “Plump with Blood and Bread: The Professor’s Diaries”, she talked about how graduate work can be poetic as well as “academically rigorous”.
In an effort to address larger issues of living ethically and respectfully with others, participants contemplated the following questions:
- How can personal, spiritual, philosophical and political reflection affect pedagogy?
- How can the artistic community coexist with the academic community and nourish research, writing and ethical relations?
Informal and collegial, the symposium created a relaxed environment where students and faculty could participate in discussions about current graduate student research and the difficulty in negotiating community-building on a commuter university campus.