Dancing in the Dark: A Survivor’s Guide to the University by Anne Pirrie, Nini Fang and Elizabeth O’Brien

In April we welcomed Lewis Stockwell to introduce Dancing in the Dark: A Survivor’s Guide to the University by Pirrie, Fang and O’Brien. Lewis is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Ed and Outdoor Environmental Ed at the University of Hertfordshire. He is the programme leader for postgraduate courses in OEE. Lewis is also a PhD student in Phil of Outdoor Ed at Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh. His thesis is exploring journeying as a particular experience for the aesthetic education of nature. Here are the questions he posed to open the discussion:

1 To what extent does the book achieve: 

•its purposes of queering the genre of academic writing, 

•it serving as an invitation for conversation 

•Exemplifying the virtues of unknowing?

2. Do you think that there might need to be stylistic changes in thought and writing of philosophy and/or education to be better equipped with unknowing?

3.What concepts and practices in formalised education presently may create shadow spaces and yet mean that those spaces might be inaccessible for some if not many?