Title of talk:

Butterfly Kisses from the Hunchback (whilst driving on the M6)

Bullet points of what you would like to talk about:

• Marc Augé, travel and memory; oblivion and memory
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Jean-Dominique Bauby)
• Walter Benjamin: The Hunchback, butterflies, and collecting things
• Ernst Bloch: Traces
• Driving and music
• Routine and inspiration
• Remembrance: imagination, possibility and the future

A few paragraphs on your subject:

In one sense, this is a talk about boredom; routine, confinement and disappointment; on reaching a goal and forgetting the purpose for striving. But this is also a talk about hope; about memory, music, and the potential for rediscovery and transformation. Utilising Bloch’s concept of the Trace, Augé’s reflections on travel, and Benjamin’s poignant ruminations on the Hunchback, this talk will be an autobiographical exposition of a journey towards continued (and continual) transformation.
 

A few paragraphs about you:

I am an active academic writer and researcher; my current writing and research is in the areas of the philosophy of education, utopia and pedagogy, pedagogy and democratic learning, Creative Autobiography; Transformative Education; complexity and knowledge; fractals and complex learning; and I also write in the area of film and philosophy.
My publication ‘Hope, Utopia and Creativity in Higher Education: Pedagogical Tactics for Alternative Futures’, reappraises ideas and concepts associated with Ernst Bloch, Roland Barthes and Gaston Bachelard. Much of my work focuses on democratising knowledge and the learning experience.
I am actively involved in the British Educational Research Association (BERA) and co-convene BERAs ‘Higher Education’ Special Interest Group. I am actively involved in LJMUs Centre for Educational Research (CERES); I am Deputy Editor of the education Journal PRISM; and a member of the Editorial Board for the International Journal of Philosophy.

What free internet knowledge resources would you recommend to others if they wish to explore your chosen theme further?

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hope-utopia-and-creativity-in-higher-education-9781350079724/
https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm
https://www.theartstory.org/influencer/benjamin-walter/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Aug%C3%A9
https://solidarity-us.org/atc/62/p2415/
 

What are your weblinks?

Website:
https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/about-us/staff-profiles/faculty-of-arts-professional-and-social-studies/school-of-education/craig-hammond
https://www.bera.ac.uk/community/higher-education
Twitter: @edupunk_craig; @BERAHighEd
Public Email: [email protected]
 

This talk took place at The Castle Hotel (66 Oldham St, Manchester M4 1LE) at 7pm on 12th Sept 2019