Dialogical Spaces

In this final episode, we reflect on the lessons we have learned along the way. We discuss the role of the university, the relationship between our minds and our bodies in shaping how we move within academia, and how we gained criticism, confusion, and a sense of community throughout this process.

While we try to summarize the main conversations we had with all of our guests, and reflect on our learning, in particular for our university, please listen to the original episodes to make up your own mind. The words of Aminata Cairo, Joz Motmans, Katta Spiel, Paola Ricaurte Quijano, Maren Behrensen, and Rosalba Icaza Garza are powerful and not to be missed if working in academia!

You can find more information on our website about the Dialogical Spaces project and the previous episodes (and the related webinars).

Also, if you have any comments, suggestions or ideas, or just want to chat about the Dialogical Spaces project, please feel free to reach out to us! Our e-mail is [email protected]. We hope to expand our Dialogical Spaces community within and outside the University of Twente.

We hope you enjoy it! This podcast is produced by Sara Trejos from Sillón Estudios.

More information from the University of Twente:

UTwente Shaping Expert Group Inclusion. 

Welcome back to the sixth episode of the Dialogical Spaces podcast! In this episode, we are accompanied by Prof Rosalba Icaza Garza and Dr Javier Martinez.

Rosalba is professor at the International Institute of Social Studies in Den Haag. Her research centres on how decolonial thinking and plural feminisms can help understand international relations, academia, and learning practices. Before entering academia, she was an activist in Mexico City, working for a network of social movements bringing together indigenous and feminist leaders.

In this episode, she will discuss the colonial legacy of universities and pedagogical practices. Specifically, she encourages us to reflect on the relevance of what we can learn from outside European Higher Education for our own institutional and pedagogical context and presents the acts of positioning, humbling, listening, and desilencing as guiding principles in decolonizing knowledge institutions.

Javier Martinez, assistant professor at the University of Twente, helps us reflect on these topics and think through their meaning from our own teaching and knowledge practices.

We hope you enjoy it!

More information about the speakers:

More information from the University of Twente:

UTwente Shaping Expert Group Inclusion. More information about the Dialogical Spaces project.

This podcast is produced by Sara Trejos from Sillón Estudios.

In this fifth episode, Maren Behrensen takes us along in a deep-dive into philosophy of science to better understand the differences between representation and justice. We are lead by the question: how can we make thought collectives more inclusive without making them exploitative? and discuss oppression, exploitation, and toxic inclusions as expressions of epistemic injustice. Maren illustrates this using examples from academia and daily life during a pandemic. Also, we invited Marit Hoefsloot and Nanou van Iersel to further reflected on these issues from their experience as MSc students at the University of Twente and from their work in philosophy of science and technology. This podcast is produced by Sara Trejos from Sillón Estudios.

More information from the speakers:

More information from the University of Twente:

In this fourth episode, we talk with Paola Ricaurte Quijano, Karin Pfeffer, and Caroline Geveart about how we can make knowledge production more equitable. Paola introduces us to the concept of ‘data decoloniality’ and illustrates through various examples how the geography of knowledge production reflects and reproduces colonial inequalities. Together with Karin and Caroline, we reflect on the role of our faculty and university within this unequal system and brainstorm about ways geo-sciences can improve. This podcast is produced by Sara Trejos from Sillón Estudios.

Links from our guests:

And more information from the University of Twente:

In this third episode, we talk with Katta Spiel and Roberto Cruz Martínez about the diversity of bodies in research, design, and academia. Katta gives us an introduction to their work on human-computer interaction and non-normative interaction design and shared experiences over marginalization and digital technologies. Together with Katta and Roberto, we try to learn from these insights and experiences and think about their implications for our own research practices, in particular in the context of a technical university like the University of Twente. This podcast is produced by Sara Trejos from Sillón Estudios.

Links from our guests:

And more information from the University of Twente:

In this second episode, we talk with Joz Motmans, Eric Louis, and Alex Jonkhart about the development of policies and strategies at universities that are both gender-inclusive and address diversity in sexual orientation. We discuss the example and experience of the UGent, a frontrunner in this respect, and reflect on the process of the University of Twente in becoming a more inclusive space. This episode was pre- and post-produced by Sara Trejos from Sillón Estudios.

Links from our guests :

Links from University of Twente:

In this first episode of the Dialogical Spaces podcast, we talk with Aminata Cairo, Sterre Mkatini and Laura Vargas Llona about inclusion and exclusion within universities as learning environments and within the stories we tell in academic research. Specifically, we explore how diversity and inclusion should be much more than representation and reflect on Aminata Cairo’s concept of ‘Holding Space’ as the courageous act of creating a powerful discomfort to start dismantling injustices within academia. This episode was pre- and post-produced by Sara Trejos from Sillón Estudios.

Links from our guests:

Links from the University of Twente: