Day 7 #16DaysOfActivism

Welcome to Day 7 of #16DaysOfActivism from across the Parallel Lives Network.

I was invited back to De Montfort University to give a talk on the Parallel Lives Archive to Year 2 students taking the Media Discourse: Events module. Thanks to Prof. Stuart Price for the invitation.

It was an opportunity to explain how the Archive operates, the various documentary media (film, photography, audio & new media) it contains, and how it’s used as a source of reference in support of documentarians & media makers across 120+ countries of the global south – this is our Parallel Lives Network.

The great thing about this kind of talk is it gets me to think about how the Archive works and how it can be improved. Saying it out loud means others are invited to respond, and even if no questions are forthcoming, it means it at least sounds sensible…. hopefully! This in turn improves the support that we can offer to active documentarians across the Network.

There are always things that can be improved and one of them is our Network Bulletin. How can we improve its format to support those taking part in activism? A bit of thinking over the Christmas and New Year break maybe.

I also spoke about the kind of people who make an event engaging and interesting. I’ve spoken to academic colleagues about this model (?) before and it’s based on my experience of running many events over the years both here in Leicester and elsewhere.

The four types are:

• Open Educators – share knowledge in both formal & informal teaching spaces / open to dialogue on issues
• Issue Experts – those with lived experience of a specific issue
• Engaged Public – activists & campaigners / moved beyond the like button and thoughts & prayers!
• Open Learners – people ‘willing’ to learn new things / open to new ideas / open to dialogue

Ideally, you’d want one or more of each type at your event.

My question to you is…..what type are you? What role can you play at an event?

The answer is….you should be ALL four!

If not you….then who?

I’m a member of the Media Discourse Centre at De Montfort University – click here to read more

All of their events on promoted via their WordPress site – click here to read more