Last week I got a chance to participate in the Dean’s Graduate Student Research conference. Being a part-time student at OISE and having taken online courses for the most part, it was a refreshing and invigorating experience to be around student researchers and get a taste of what is being carried out at OISE. The keynote session titled ‘Where do we go from here? Making our research count’ was inspirational too with keynote speakers being Prof Rinaldo Walcott, Canada Research Chair, Chair SESE, our very own Prof Clare Brett, Associate Chair & Co-ordinator of Grad Studies, CTL and the artist, activist and OISE PhD Candidate Spencer J. Harrison.
Rinaldo’s message about intellectual multiculturalism was reminiscent of our discussions about deliberative democracy two weeks ago, interwoven with cultural aspects which he was now bringing to light as well. There had been a brief discussion between Jessica and Natalia about whose perspectives carried more weight, as far as news was concerned – an ordinary man’s or a specialized journalist’s. I would consider both views powerful and equally important. If we aim at creating informed citizens then their participation has to be given enough credit and included in the realm of general politics. It is the sum-total of the perspectives, which then becomes greater for a society than the individual parts.
As I went through it, I remember thinking about the construction of knowledge and the way it occurs. Bouncing ideas off of each other, weaving it in with facts, opinions, ideas and considerations is what really brings knowledge to the world. While collaborating with Vincent on the final assignment, I was introduced to a rather interesting TED talk, which Vincent also mentioned in his journal entry dated Feb 6th. For me, two noteworthy points that emerged from this video were the need for a platform conducive to bring forth these ideas, which was best grounded in collaborative environments, and the value of interconnections between thoughts from different sources.
This gelled well with Rinaldo’s idea about intellectual multiculturalism which referred to the merging of a range of perspectives, identities and considerations if we were to utilize knowledge for its liberatory purposes. Cultural studies, he said, are an attempt to delimit democracy. This broadening of social contexts might not be possible without the coming together of diverse fields, ideas, realities and opinions. Lifting a summary point of last week’s discussion directly from Natalia and Jennifer’s note: “The online medium can result in information overload but is the only real place that freedom of the press can exist”. I do believe that CMCs have a big role to play in enhancing the collaborative knowledge construction in society.
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