Poised for resonance: a lexical current of sonic knowing
Gabriele Woolever
MA student, Department of Geography, UBC
Monday, November 15 from 3-4pm
Liu Institute for Global Issues – Boardroom 316
[ Abstract ]
This presentation draws from my master’s thesis, Sanctuary sound & fugitivity: Negotiating stories and publics beyond citizenship. The project as a whole enters into the relationship between fugitivity, sound, and sanctuary. Their relations are expressed diversely in the fugitive flight of sound waves and in the desires and refusals of those otherwise “held” in some sense by the state. Claiming these material and conceptual affinities, this collaborative research takes creative form as a suite of audio stories recorded with temporary foreign workers in British Columbia. The work is guided by concepts of attunement and accompaniment, and troubled by the politics of liberal empathy as critiqued by the Black radical tradition. It both asks how audio storytelling can create a kind of narrative sanctuary and public presence for people on the margins of state-articulated belonging and seeks to embody one kind of answer to the same.
[ Bio ]
I’m preoccupied with sound and sanctuary – two important elements of my research with temporary foreign workers in British Columbia. I’m working with Dr. Gerry Pratt and members of the Migrant Workers’ Centre in Vancouver to create audio stories based on their experiences within and beyond the reach of the state’s administration of their lives. How can audio stories help create a kind of fugitive sanctuary and alternate public presence for those excluded from state belonging? How can this practice both describe and cultivate a hospitality that disrupts dominant narratives of the migrant other? Underpinning these questions are my interests in geographies of encounter, abolition futures, and feminist and creative methodologies. Prior to enrolling in UBC Geography’s master’s program in 2019, I work for several years in photography and arts administration, and completed a bachelor’s degree in international studies at Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY, USA).
[ About the Migration Grad Student Power Hour ]
The Centre for Migration Studies Grad Student Power Hour provides opportunities for UBC graduate students to share their research on migration beyond their home departments and network with faculty and students from across the university and in the broader community sector. The Power Hour will begin with 10 minutes of networking opportunities, followed by a 30 minute talk and 20 minutes for discussion. Anyone is welcome to attend. We look forward to seeing you there!
Please RSVP for this in-person event below.
