Course
Encomia
"The main take-home is how wonderful and amazing this is. And what a great bunch of intelligent, kind and driven scholars you have on board. ALSO — first and foremost — the fact that it is happening at all. How incredible: and with such informed and giving speakers. You have done something amazing. I loved everything [about Mark Nelson's seminar]: the talk was completely inspiring; but also the way the questions were managed with flexibility, justice, and no hierarchy." Sinead Garrigan (seminar visitor)
"Thank you so much for this first week! It has been very exciting and inspiring." Mariana (2023-24 scholar)
"That afternoon cheered me up enormously - the room and the people in it and the discussion about TAZs and bohemian networks. All stirring stuff." Ken Worpole (seminar leader)
"The course is fantastic. It’s been wonderful to meet everyone involved and, in many ways, feels like a shared commitment that will last our lifetimes." Alex (2022-23 scholar)
"[A] wonderful afternoon. Very much enjoyed it and would love to come back." Natalie Bennett (seminar leader)
"NSOTA has nurtured a uniquely open and principled learning environment and I am utterly grateful for the wonderful opportunity it offers us all to play our parts within. At such a desperately critical point of transformation for the planet and for the species - this is sorely needed." Chris (2022-23 scholar)
"I just want to submit my earnest appreciation for the NSOTA program so far. It has been so generative to my thinking around how I want to engage with the current crisis, and it's been inspiring to meet so many others with similar interests and unique expertise. [P]lease be assured that your effort has a significant impact! Sara (2023-24 scholar)
“I’ve been wondering all morning how best to express the pleasure I took in yesterday’s visit to NSotA. It was for me a delight but a serious delight beyond the simply social. The group had such maturity and depth of engagement, as well as freshness and agility. I’d be sorry not to have more to do with the great enterprise, whenever appropriate. And the October Gallery, with its charming management, is such a lovely place to be.” Robin Kirkpatrick (seminar leader)
"Just a quick note of appreciation for the wide-ranging, provocative, inspirational seminars. You are opening for all of us -- every Friday -- new connections, thoughts, possibilities. They've become so much part of all our lives for this past year! Such a labour of love, the benefits of which none of us can even yet foresee the end. NS is a treasure! We are all so grateful to be part of it and to have made the connections I have." Derede (2022-23 scholar)
"I don't know how many times a day I tell people of the NSotA. You have brought so many like minded souls determined to bring change together." Shreepali Patel (seminar leader)
"[Critical-Creative Seam] sessions are so stimulating that I didn’t go to sleep until 4am - I wrote two critical commentaries last night on the writing produced thus far and am anticipating next week already . . . I'm finding the course is deepening all aspects of my time rooting around on Earth, and I'm seeking to bring as many parts of it to different areas of my life. For instance, I took the Moral Imaginings project to my workplace Learning and Development Lead, to a friend on the local council, and to my Community Association, where, with the exception of the council, it was received with interest and an enthusiasm for evolving the idea. So the course already has a life beyond its academic reach for me. It is such a great joy for me to be connected with so many of the most thoughtful, animated, humble and kind people there are and I am thankful for this journey with you [all]. Sincere appreciation for the monumental energy the facilitators and the ensemble are putting into this project." Naomi (2023-24 scholar)
“A fizzingly interesting and generous space summoned into being in the October Gallery. My sincere thanks to all of those who took part in the convivium. It was a genuine pleasure to think with them, and I was brought to see round some unnoticed corners, and to recognise light falling on unexpected aspects of the terrain.” Robert Macfarlane (seminar leader)
"I thoroughly enjoyed Robert Macfarlane's seminar on Friday. It made me feel very grateful to be a part of the New School, and I want to thank you for creating such an open and exciting space, and for inviting me in." Isla (2022-23 scholar)
"It was a delight to meet the participants and feel the connection, curiosity and desire to learn, create and experience education in a way that reflects/responds to the profound challenges of our times." Heather Ackroyd (seminar leader)
"So many beautiful ideas gifted to the world [from] the sanctuary which is NSotA." Max (2022-24 scholar)
“A most stimulating time and very refreshing company – I felt very encouraged by the questions and contributions and it has made me more resolved to work on the book. The students are all so engaged and interesting, it made the session quite exhilarating for me.” Marina Warner (seminar leader)
"The nuance within/ordering of the seminar programme so far has been excellent. I am a practicing Artist and the programme has invigorated my thinking around ongoing artistic concerns as well as introduced me to new dynamics and problematics around how to position myself and my work in the current moment. The [supervisions] have been fantastic. My project outline was clearly understood and the discussions are productive and supportive with a generous awareness of my sensitivities around working rhythms and reception of new information. I feel highly supported and encouraged by these interactions. [. . .] V exciting. Wow! I continue to be agitated, activated, recalibrated by this programme. I haven't felt this creative in many years!" Joseph (2022-23 scholar)
“I enjoyed the whole seminar. Such stimulating and thrilling questions from such an engaged group (exactly as described) about such a wide range of topics. Very happy to do it again next year. I did instantly feel that Gessie and others at the October Gallery were kindred spirits.” Terry Macalister (seminar leader)
"Still really enjoying. It is stimulating, entertaining, thought provoking and challenging. The second half really found it's rhythm I feel. Some great seminars. What will we do when it’s over????" Venetia (2022-24 scholar)
"I did so much enjoy that NSOTA event at October Gallery - what a contrast to [mainstream HE]: no wasted resources, direct and vibrant contact . . . The whole day was an absolute pleasure - lovely participants at the lecture, lovely audience in the evening [concert performance], and a thoroughly happy and positive feel to the whole day." John Kenny (seminar leader & concert performer)
"Love it; it’s an interesting mix of seminars and speakers. I feel that it’s opening my perspective and fueling creativity. As always with these seminars it’s fantastic and appreciated to be in conversation with people so involved and passionate about their subjects. . . . [T]he film I made for [the] creative workshop and now the audio piece has been so much fun. I’m learning more skills and expanding my creative bounds. There’s a fearlessness that comes from wanting to be involved, and being surrounded by a non-judgemental, encouraging, creative, supportive group of people." Simon (2022-24 scholar)
"Thanks for your great kindness and collegial generosity; the contrast with straight HE is astonishing . . ." Eleanor Dare (seminar leader)
"It's an immense pleasure to read such sensitive and generous appreciation of the project! I am quite blown away at the attention that was given, it's really wonderful. I loved being compared to Montaigne by Robin [Kirkpatrick]! My god! . . . Sinead [Garrigan] especially wrote a really beautiful and generous response." Ryan (2022-23 scholar)
"It was a real pleasure to be with the scholars and planetarians. I was delighted to see how engaged, open-minded, curious, philosophically and sonically experimental the participants were and I'm glad we could co-create the space together and un-learn some things about institutional structures together and go on a more exploratory journey through listening, sound, and performance. All round a fantastic experience. Sophie Seita (seminar leader)
"Really enjoying it, so enriching." Emma (2022-24 scholar)
"I am learning something new outside my comfort zone and enabling me to see a different perspective. I am loving the different perspectives, the body of knowledge and the resources this program is exposing me to. There are not enough hours a day or week or month to go through them all. I jot the resources down with the view to reading them when I get a chance/time. I am impressed with scholars - lucky to be part of the program. I greatly value our secondary seminars (I attend Sunday ones) and Whatsapp group - feeling connected to the wider team and learning from them. The year has been quite a journey for me, full of discoveries and eye-opening experiences. I've come to realize just how fragile and majestic nature truly is, and it's painful to think that human actions are constantly threatening the delicate balance of life on this planet. It's a sobering realization, but one that we can't afford to ignore. We can't give in to feelings of desperation or apathy. We must take action and do everything in our power to protect and preserve this beautiful planet that we - all species - call home." Gulru (2022-24 scholar)
"The discussion that followed was one of the richest and most formative for me that I have had. I derived great nourishment from it. You certainly know how to not only attract beautiful people, but also create contexts where their beauty can come out.
It is more than understandable that people do not want to end the experience after only one year! Clelia Bartoli (seminar leader)
"It was a great and transformative experience." Alia (2022-23 scholar)
"Thanks for hosting me so warmly. I am so impressed by your student cohort for their engagement and interests, which reflect the philosophical grounds you are pursuing in the New School, and where I intellectually felt at home in so many ways. I hope our engagement continues." Zeremariam Fre (seminar leader)
"I thought Friday's seminar was a great success. The vibrancy of discussion continued onward into the pub. For all its challenges in application, I am starting to see the strengths in The Rights of Nature as pedagogical dispositif or unifying theme, leapfrogging from last year to this, across your carefully considered assemblage of speakers. This continuity is most appreciating - for me at least, in how I learn." Chris (2022-24 scholar)
"I have to admit I've spent the weekend evangelising about October Gallery and the New School of the Anthropocene. What an incredible group of people! I've had the most wonderful time both with the scholars and later having the best conversation with [the organisers]." Dana Olărescu (seminar leader)
"Thank you for creating a sanctuary in the increasingly capitalist and mechanistic higher education system for the intellectually curious." Angie (2023-24 scholar)
"I have loved my year of study and exploration. It has opened up lines of creation and enquiry that were totally unexpected and provided a wonderful forum for meeting people to explore and discuss ideas with. This was all that I hoped to get from the course and more, so I wanted to express my gratitude for your efforts in making it all happen. I also must say that I have found [the convenor's] pedagogical efforts as well as the sessions themselves to be inspirational." Ryan (2022-23 scholar)
"It was a delight to present research material to such a receptive and engaged cohort of participants. You [have] created the most genuinely nurturing academic environment I've experienced." Andrew Burton (seminar leader)
"The program has been inspiring and motivating. I have particularly enjoyed the relationships I have established with some members of the cohort." Cornelia (2023-24 scholar)
"My contribution [at last Friday's seminar] bolted out of me, from somewhere in the depths of exactly what this project and New School experience is bringing back to me. I truly think it is vital to keep creating new pathways, as [NSotA] is doing, without it being in any way a rejection of any other path. It seems to me the process is a development - out of the old - and towards - a different stage of being and remaining human. When I graduated from the RSAMD (now RCS) I spent a great deal of my creative life passionately going to rural corners and wild suburban deserts of deprivation teaching harum-scarum drama projects with primary age children. Time and again the class and the teachers would be astounded by the ability of the - usually - most disruptive pupils - when they proved to be capable - but much more than that - totally focussed and attentive - in a different dimension! I would not be able to undertake those projects now, regardless of funding, or zany dedication, because the bureaucracy and paperwork to access each individual school, each day, would be more than the time involved in the active project The school system prohibits a huge amount of intelligence from being channelled and creates hopelessness and delinquency in the disenfranchised beings - some who have difficulty perhaps writing or doing maths, but can provide solutions in complex - and practical - living situations, but also in those individuals who are capable at all levels but have to keep the class balance. I do not feel the fault is with the teachers - or even the system, so much as the history our schooling system is based upon. I think it would be useful to make my 'write up' project about my journey exploring the history of 'education.'" Ruth (2022-23 scholar)
"[The Critical-Creative Seam class] was both a pleasure and a learning curve, and discussion with NSotA scholars was utterly refreshing. The gallery is a beautiful space, and I loved visiting." Sura Qadiri (seminar leader)
"[The seminar] was a pleasure. You’ve got quite the switched on cohort on the course! I wish I saw such criticality in the courses I’m teaching, but the bureaucratisation is indeed intense." Peter Sutoris (seminar leader)
"I was so impressed and moved by the quality and variety of projects and people [at the end of year student presentation session]. Wonderful to see the New School in action!" Roger Malbert (guest)
"I'm proud to have been part of this great venture." Tracey (2022-23 scholar)
"Thank you again for the wonderful invite to NSOTA last week. I really enjoyed the conversation. The entire place and project were really inspiring." Ariel Caine (seminar leader)
"The New School of the Anthropocene looks deeply fascinating - I've been poring over the course topics. Huge amounts to think about. I've been thinking about where my students go after sixth form. When I was teacher training, I remember reading a clear-sighted description of curriculum design as having its eyes 10 years into the future, minimum. I've seen so little evidence of that. Even the justification of university as in line with 'workforce alignment and supply' feels like a cop out to me: who is seriously giving us a sense of what the workforce will look like even in 10 years' time? So much of secondary education is myopic--focused around something like day-to-day caring human interaction (a good thing), a vague sense that some things will last in the memory of schooling beyond exam results (a good thing that is frustratingly undertheorised ((I think))), and a dogged insistence that exams are the only possible justification for the relationships we (teachers and students) are cultivating. It's really uplifting to read about a properly radical, future-minded approach to education. A jolting sense of possibility." Joseph (secondary school teacher)