The 4th Annual Transdisciplinary Winter School

“Culture, Psychology & Qualitative Research” took place online on February 15 and 16, 2024 on the topic “Blind Spots and Unequal Power Relations: What Does it Take to Construct Knowledge Globally?”. It was hosted by the Doctoral School of the Humanities at Aalborg University (AAU) and organized by Prof. Meike Watzlawik (SFU Berlin) and Prof. Carolin Demuth (AAU). 18 PhD students from Denmark, Austria, Brazil, Italy, South Africa, Sweden, and the USA participated.

The two days were divided into lectures, open discussion sessions, Ph.D. students' project presentations, and participants’ discussion sessions. During the winter school, attendees had the opportunity to discuss freely and openly through the insightful keynotes from Puleng Segalo (University of South Africa), Danilo Silva Guimarães (University of São Paulo Brazil), and representatives of the Mastura Institute of Applied Science in Psychosocial Work (Sulaymaniah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq): Prof. Karim Luqman, Prof. Karin Mlodoch and Berenice Meintjes).

On the first day, Professor Puleng Segalo discussed approaching phenomena from a decolonial gaze methodologically. Her keynote entitled “Following the Decolonial Impulse: Reimagining Methodological Approaches and Ethical Principles” challenged the audience by stating how unequal power relations transcend geographical and disciplinary boundaries. Due to some institutions' difficulties accessing studies, we are inclined to teach and learn only one story. As an alternative, she pointed to the need to allow diversity in knowledge production toward epistemological modesty.

Following this diversity in knowledge, Professor Danilo Guimarães argued the role of indigenous knowledge and its Being, Power, Knowledge, and Will dimensions. In his lecture “From Decolonial to Indigenous Approaches to Constructing Knowledge,” he presented the Indigenous House experience at the University of São Paulo. He showed examples of dialogical encounters between the university and indigenous communities and the process of making knowledge boundaries more flexible.

The lectures were followed by split session rooms where participants could share their research projects and have tips from the professors about blind spots in research and analytical procedures. Each group session had topics related to the projects presented regarding the central issue of the winter school. The topics discussed in those groups ranged from how to look at the data produced from a decolonial standpoint, the process of relating with participants, and whether there is an imbalance among Western and local authors in the literature review.

On the second day, we started with a presentation about the work of the Mastura Institute of Applied Science in Psychosocial Work by Prof. Karim Luqman, Prof. Karin Mlodoch and Berenice Meintjes (clinical psychologist) with the title “De-Colonization of Psychological and Psychosocial Knowledge and Practice: Between Romanticizing Indigenous Knowledge and Globalization of Critical and Emancipatory Approaches” from Iraq. The group showed a historical line and conflicts in the Kurdistan region, covering the political, ideological, and cultural trials they faced in doing their work. Some aspects considered challenging were listening to the local knowledge without romanticizing it, a critical approach to local realities concerning its history in a dialogical environment, and to what extent assuming this critical approach leads the researchers to adopt a positionality in an ethical dimension.

After the lecture, participants were invited to join another breakout room and discuss their research projects amongst peers. This was an excellent opportunity for Ph.D. students to share ideas, experiences, and contacts to keep exploring and creating a community environment united by a decolonial will in doing research.

The second part of the afternoon consisted of a Knowledge Exchange Fair in open breakout sessions with the two organizers (Dr. Dominik Mihalits joining in as representative of Sigmund Freud University) as well as the invited keynote speakers, providing the participants with the opportunity to discuss their individual projects with the experts and to share what they learned in the two days of winter school. In the main final plenum session, some ideas were shared on possible topics for the next winter school.

Ana Luiza de França Sá- Federal University of Bahia (participant) & Carolin Demuth, Aalborg University (co-organizer)

The annual winterschool is a co-operation between the Centre for Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University (Carolin Demuth), Sigmund Freud University Berlin (Meike Watzlawik), Sigmund Freud University Vienna (Dominik Mihalits), and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University Münster (Thomas Stodulka). It is supported by the Association of European Qualitative Researchers in Psychology (EQuiP).

 

Further information:

https://www.communication.aau.dk/research/research-centres/ccp#annual-transdisciplinary-winter/summer-school-“culture,-psychology-&-qualitative-research”