Deep Listening: Possibilities for Critical Engagement in Theory, Method, and Practice

• In Event: Learning Otherwise: Indigenous Resistance, Critical Methods, and the Power of Counterstory

Abstract

This paper addresses two intertwined discussions on the significance of Deep Listening: Aboriginal Australians' description of their relationships to the world (Dadirri) and the nomenclature for queer, Latinx, composer and musical pioneer Pauline Oliveros’ life’s work. What emerges when these conceptualizations of relations are put in conversation with one another are central reverberations of care, dignity, and respect that form multipolyphonic ethical commitments to justice. Such possibilities are also important because they provide concrete examples of how to be with others including the ability to hear possibilities that one cannot ethically enact, modes for learning while respecting boundaries of sovereignty, dignity, and action.

Author

• Walter S Gershon, Rowan University