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Postgraduate Masterclass with Maria Bargh and Kelly Dombroski

Date & Time: 26th October 10:00 am - 12:30 pm. Powerhouse Museum, Ultimo

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A  little more about the session
Postgraduate research and the terrestrial politics of sharing authority

Postgraduate workshop and masterclass with Maria Bargh and Kelly Dombroski

What does a terrestrial politics look like in practice and what is the role of knowledge making in social change?  What role can postgraduate researchers play in transformative politics and practice? In this workshop we seek to explore answers to this question starting from our work in the Aotearoa context, looking to make connections with elsewhere. In the context of ‘terrestrial politics’, we bring a set of questions to consider:

● What does it mean for researchers to re-negotiate our relationship with place and one another?

● What can we learn from one another about what decolonisation means?

● What values and practices are needed to support a flourishing and abundant environment in times of deep uncertainty?

● How does postgraduate research generate, engage with, and support such practices of politics and decolonisation?

● How does the concept of ‘sharing authority’ help us to generate meaningful research?

Maria Bargh and Kelly Dombroski are researchers in the space of environmental, economic, social and cultural politics, working with and in communities already seeking and acting for change. In different settings, they both work to build a politics of possibility where ‘sharing authority’ is enacted: between treaty partners Indigenous and non-Indigenous, between self-organised communities and local governments, between people and planet, and more. In this workshop they create a space for postgraduate students to explore the different practices of politics relevant to their research spaces.

Recommended preparation::

● Explore some of the report and action plan Me Tū ā-Uru: for a flourishing and abundant environment by Maria Bargh and her team of researchers, especially the recommendations for change intended to engage a wide range of people in Aotearoa New Zealand https://www.metuauru.co.nz/

● Read this reflection on Latour’s thinking around terrestrial politics and its relationship to a politics of possibility  in Aotearoa New Zealand, see Healy, S., M. Scobie, K. Dombroski. 2020. "Grounded! COVID-19 and Recovering Postcapitalist Possibility in Place." Rethinking Marxism Dossier,http://rethinkingmarxism.org/Dossier2020/

● Bring along a 200 word description of your research project, and some short answers to the questions: what are the matters of concern and matters of care I bring to my research? What is the sphere of influence I find myself in? What are people already doing to address these matters of care and concern?

Check out  the full conference program

Biographies

Maria_BMaria BarghMaria Bargh (Te Arawa, Ngāti Awa) is Professor of Politics and Māori Studies at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington. She has researched and published widely in the area of politics: Māori, local, national, and international. Her work on a ‘tika transition’ for climate change has been used by community organisations and local and central government in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is co-chair of the ‘adaptive governance and policy’ research team for the Biological Heritage, National Science Challenge and is Deputy Chair of the Independent Electoral Review Panel. She is also Minerals Advisor for her hapū Ngāti Kea/Ngāti Tuara at Horohoro, Rotorua.
Kelly
Kelly Dombroski		Kelly Dombroski is a researcher in social, economic and environmental change in Aotearoa New Zealand and Asia Pacific. She is Associate Professor of Geography at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University. Her current five-year research project funded by Te Aparangi Royal Society of New Zealand is titled Transitioning to Caring Economies through Transformative Community Investment. It involves working with a range of innovative community groups who are already doing transformational work. She is a member of the Community Economies Institute and facilitates the Aotearoa node of the annual Researching Postcapitalist Possibilities Summer/Winter School. Kelly has published widely in the areas of feminist economic geography, care, diverse economies and community economies in Asia Pacific. With JK GibsonGraham, she is the co-editor of the Handbook of Diverse Economies (Edward Elgar 2020). Her other books include Huritanga: Ten Years of Transformative Placemaking (Life in Vacant Spaces 2022), Introducing Human Geographies 4th Edition (Routledge, 2024), and Caring for Life: A Postdevelopment Politics of Infant Hygiene (University of Minnesota Press, 2023). Kelly grew up in rural Wairarapa, studied in New Zealand, Australia and China, and now lives in Manawatū. She descends from Scottish, English, Irish, and German immigrants and has four children.