Risa Question: What sorts of conversations do you aim to have with the folks you mention below, i.e. in what specific ways are these people sources of research or mentorship for you? Spell it out.

I’ve told Risa that I feel I need to do a lot of reading, thinking, and chatting with people in order to get a sense of what type of work I should aim to produce. I’ve listed a few people below from whom I believe I can glean some useful information. My hope is that these conversations will also create a spark of inspiration — that I’ll have an “aha!” moment when an idea pops into my head during or after these conversations.

I’m sure this list of folks will change with time; I’ve already removed one person from it and added two others. Here’s a brief summary of why I’d like to chat with each of these people.

Ken Wilson

Ken is a friend of mine and a colleague in the Department of English (also teaching two sections of English 100 this term, so we get to kvetch about students and grading). He’s on this list, however, because he’s taking an Interdisciplinary PhD at the U of R that works with the subject matter of Canada’s tragic colonial past and its continued impact on First Nations’ people. In other words, his work has a content matter that is connected to society and politics. For one of his MFA projects, he completed a 300km walk through the land of the Six Nations, raising money to help create a residential school museum and blogging about the experience in great detail. For his PhD, he continues to walk, and he again posts detailed observations of the land he covers in his blog Reading and Walking.

Ken’s writing is reminiscent of W. G. Sebald, a German writer whose work both Ken and I admire. My MA (English) research paper was titled: “‘On every new thing there lies already the shadow of annihilation:’ The Fragment and Photography in W. G. Sebald’s Fiction,” and I feel like I should review some of the work I did for that degree to see if I can carry anything from it into my MFA. Getting back to Ken, I get the sense that he and I have a few things in common, and I’d like to learn more about his practice.

We had an initial chat in his lovely garden this past Sunday afternoon, and he gave me a few things to think about, namely:

1. Look into people on campus doing social practice in MAP at the U of R: Rebecca Cains and Taiwo Afolabi (a recent Canada Research Chair).

(I was pleased to hear Ken bring up social practice, as it’s something I just discovered a few weeks ago and believe could be useful to integrate into my work. Ken explained that in social practice, people often get to “take something with them” as a result of their participation. He gave an example of what this could mean in terms of my project (I’d shared my originally proposed idea with him): have people use cake icing to write the figure representing the CO2 in the atmosphere in the year they were born on a cookie that they can then take away with them, presumably to “consume.” Nice!)

2. Get in touch with Barbara Mineli. She conducted(?) a social practice piece a while ago where she put candy in a bowl in a public space for people to take (I didn’t catch what her intended message was, however).

3. Chat with Philip Charrier, history prof at the U of R and photographer (who also happens to be a friend of my husband), who has did one project that involved taking photographs of people living in the north-central area of Regina and then giving these people their portraits.

4. Look up Leah Decter.

It was a good start to our conversation, and I look forward to speaking more with Ken in the near future.

Tanya Dhalms:

Tanya is also someone I’ve recently begun developing a friend with, and I hope to speak with her about her role as an environmental activist. She and I are meeting with a Conservative MP two days from now in order to execute LeadNow’s campaign to pressure the government to create a “green recovery” post-Covid. I’d like to chat with her about her activism.

David Sauchyn

Dave is a prof of geography and environmental science, and a researcher in the are of climate change. According to his profile at the U of R, part of his work involves the “translation of climate change science for adaption decision making.” He has published on topics relating to the Canadian Prairies: “The Prairies; in From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 2007”; “Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture in the Prairies Region.” If he will be willing to make some time to chat with me, I’m hoping to get a sense of what he believes are the key issues that we’ll be facing here in Saskatchewan as the effects of climate change become more severe. Knowing this may give me ideas for ways to present climate change in my art in a way that local people (around me) will be able to relate (i.e.: crop drought, not melting glaciers).

Robert Sandford

Bob is Chair in Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, and has published many books on climate change for the general public in addition to his scholarly work. I discovered him when I was looking for data on Athabasca Glacier for David’s Open Studio course I took in 2018; I came across his essay, “Water and Hope: Facing Fact and Inspiring Optimism in the Anthropocene” in The Source: Rethinking Water Through Contemporary Art.

After digging around online for a while, I found a contact phone number for Bob, and I was shocked and delighted that he picked up the phone — he was attending a conference Berlin at the time. He was extremely friendly despite my interruption to his day, and he told me how much he values the role artists is influencing positive change regarding environmental issues. He told me he’d have his colleague, Mike Demuth, email me the data I was looking, which he did. I enjoyed incorporating science into my work, and this is something I’d like to do more of.

Bob has come to be somewhat of a mentor to me. I went on to read a couple of his books and found that he writes in a nearly lyrical manner with a very clear passion for his subject… parts of them can almost bring me to tears. His ability to take scientific information and convey it in such a way that a lay person could have this response is something I admire and wish to emulate.

I’m adding a couple of his other books to my reading list, such as North America in the Anthropoecne and The Hard Work of Hope: Climate Change in the Age of Trump.

I plan to reach out to him again asking to have a chat about his current work. Again, I hope that this will not only educate but also inspire me. His colleague, Demuth, is also someone I’d love to have the opportunity to chat with. His book, Becoming Water: Glaciers in a Warming World, is also both informative and personal.

Larissa Shasko

I met Larissa though my work as an activist in town, and I admire her drive and her accomplishments. In a post from last year about her receipt of a scholarshiop, the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy explained that Larissa was “a Master of Public Policy candidate at the school’s University of Regina campus and is the former Leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan (2009-2011). In addition to being an exceptional student and environmental and political activist, Larissa is also a gifted artist, a dedicated volunteer, and a loving mother of two young children.”

Larissa is currently a PhD candidate in Public Policy, working with co-supervisors, Dr. Margo Hurlbert (U of R) and Dr. Jeremy Rayner (U of S). A brief description of her current project is that its aim is

“support and enable youth leaders to transition their generation to achieve the greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets established by the 2015 Paris Agreement and future agreements under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The project will include an exploration of values systems and ideas for public engagement methods that may work to reach youth at various stages of transformation. Eco-anxiety is a growing concern for youth everywhere, yet when economic disparities exist among youth from different locations or cultures, these inequities add a further degree of importance to ensuring youth are brought into shared conversations about energy decisions that will shape their futures.”

Larissa Shasko

We will be setting up a time to chat in early October, and I’m hoping I will be able to glean some useful information on her “exploration of values systems and ideas for public engagement methods” relating to climate change.

Katherine Arbuthnott

Katherine is another fellow faculty member at the U of R, and I’ve bumped into her in a few committees over the years. I’ve contacted her to set up a time to chat about her work in environmental psychology as I believe this is a subject I must learn about. For instance, she has published on “The influence of goal-framing and autonomous motivation on pro-environmental behaviour.”

I have so much to learn!! I wish I had time to take several classes this term, including her grad class on “Environmental Psychology” (or more appropriately, I’d start out with her undergrad class: “Psychology and Environmental Change”).

Katherine has replied to my email in which I introduced my area of (art) work and why I’d love to chat with her. She wrote back with “I think that artists have a vital role to play in getting us all to turn our home-ship around, and I also talk about that a bit in my undergraduate conservation psych class” and said that she’d be “delighted to zoom-chat with [me] about our various work on this, as well as share resources (both directions).” We’re about to set something up.

Summary

This is just a beginning for me; I hope to have many conversations over the next few months/years that will inform and inspire my work. I’m grateful for everyone’s time and willingness to share what they’re doing.