Speculative Space: A Conversational Laboratory to Explore Speculative Education and Research in the Professions

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:45 am - Gold 4

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

Speculation carries a multitude of meanings and therefore cannot be reduced to a single
definition. It resists defining. Nevertheless, there is a common thread that unites various
speculative approaches across disciplines. That is, the desire to imagine something other
than what is, something new, different, weird. Why envision what isn’t yet, but what could
be? Because the creative act of speculation provides throughways and openings and
sidesteps past the weary repetition of history.

This session offers a facilitated conversation to connect across professions and explore
our curiosities about the ever-evolving realm of speculative education and research. We
invite participants to share stories and questions, deepening our collective understanding
of why and how to speculate about what could be.

Sub Unit

• Division I - Education in the Professions

Chair

• Bridget Colleen O'Brien, University of California - San Francisco

Papers

• A Speculative Worldview to Make Sense of Complexity - Tiffany Chambers, University of California - San Francisco

• From Strangeness to Speculation: Linguistic Tools Defamiliarizing the Present to Imagine the Future - Abigail W. Konopasky, Dartmouth College

• Speculative Space: Radical Imagining of Spatial Justice in Education in the Professions - Darrell D. Jackson, University of Wyoming

• Into the Nepantla: Visions of Racially and Ethnically Marginalized Disabled Medical Students - Hannah L. Kakara Anderson, Maastricht University

Session Organizer

• Tiffany Chambers, University of California - San Francisco