CHRIS CAVANAGH
mythcast@gmail.com
http://comeuppance.blogspot.com
WORK HISTORY
2001-present Part-time Faculty & Instructor, York Univ., Faculty of Environmental Studies
• 2003-present: ENVS6150-Popular Education for Social Change Part I: Theory/Practice
• 2016-2017: ENVS4140: Environmental Thought
• 2015-2016 & 2017-18: ENVS5103: Nature and Society
• 2003-2016: ENVS6151-Popular Education for Social Change Part II: Practice/Theory
• 2014-2015: ENVS1000 Perspectives on Environmental Studies
• 2013-2014: ENVS2122: Community Arts for Social Change
• 2011-2012: ENVS1200-Taking Action: Engaging People and Environments
• 2010-2011: FACS4122-Community Arts Practicum Certificate Seminar
• 2009-2011: ENVS4420-Environment, Media, Culture and Communication
• 2009-2016: ENVS3125-Popular Education for Social & Environmental Justice
• 2008-2009: ENVS1000 Perspectives on Environmental Studies
• 2005-2007: ENVS5101-Introduction to Environmental Studies
• 2001-2002: ENVS6150-Popular Education for Social Change
2013-2017
Coordinator Wild Garden Media Centre, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University
2000-2001
Instructor for Popular Education at George Brown College Community Worker Program
1999-present
Collective member (co-founder) Catalyst Centre Popular Education Worker Co-op
1997-2000
Instructor in Royal Ontario Museum Saturday Morning Club and Summer Club
1993-present
Professional storyteller - freelance
1991-1998
Popular Education Community Organizer and Consultant - Member of Doris Marshall Institute for Education and Action
1989-1991
Coordinator Toronto Committee for the Liberation of Southern Africa, TCLSAC
1
983-present
Photographer – freelance
1983-present
Graphic artist/designer, muralist, puppeteer - freelance
1988-1989
Animateur Communautaire and Researcher - Commission des Écoles Catholiques de Montréal, Popular Education Dept.
1985-1988
Co-founder, organiser, trainer - International Youth for Peace and Justice Tour
1985
Contributing Editor - The Upstream Journal
1984-1985
Researcher - The Journey (a film directed by Peter Watkins)
1983
Co-founder, co-director and Culture Editor - Open City Magazine
Paste-up artist and typesetter - Atelier Centreville
1981-1983
Editor and Production Manager - The McGill Daily
1978-1981
Daycare worker - McGill Family Daycare Centre
EDUCATION
1995 - Masters in Environmental Studies at Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University
MAJOR PAPERS/PROJECTS/PORTFOLIOS SUPERVISED for the MES of the FES, York University
2016
Alexander Gopen forthcoming – tentative title: “Community Planning with Popular Education in Parkdale”
2015
Graham Cavalier The Importance of Better Buildings: Natural Solutions in a Modern World
Lois Kamenitz Writing My Way Home - Disconnections, Connections, and Reconnections: Rifts and the Possibility of Healing Through Memory and Story
Arran Liddel Portfolio: Love, Peace, and Curriculum: Supporting teachers to integrate restorative practices in their classrooms
2014
Nicole Gagliardi Working the Distance between Rhetoric and Reality: Understanding and Practicing the 'What', 'Why' and 'How' of Community Work
Antonio Gomes Agroecological Farm Design Using Popular Education
Angelica
Rutherford-Neilsen Fostering Community Collaborations, Ecological Identities, and Eco-Spiritualistic Ideologies.
2013
Damian Adjodha Culturally Grounded Agroecological Food Sovereignty Education
Reka Sivarajah Dialogue and Placemaking in Community Engagement - A Focus on the Southeast Markham Community
2012
Rachael Edge “Does My Voice Even Matter?” : Youth Programming in Hamilton, ON
2011
Laura Copeland Popular Education in Community Development Initiatives for Homeless and At Risk Youth: A Case Study of the Complexities in Implementing Therapeutic and Empowering Programs
2010
Diana Younes Understanding International Education: the case of Jordanian Students in Canada
Ian Malczewski Stories about Storeys: Life in Tower Neighbourhoods
2009
Hannah Lewis Learning to Live Well Where We Are: Integrating Community Mapping and Critical Place-Based Environmental Education
Rani Sanderson “The Environment and Me”: Exploring Children’s Perceptions and Perspectives of the Environment Through Digital Storytelling
2008
Chris Babin Personal Media Production
Sutton Eaves Connecting Experience and Expression: A critical media pedagogy and production project with First Nations youth in Toronto
2007
Daniela Kibedi Children with Autism: A Critical Pedagogy Approach to Education
Claudia deSimone Toward Popular Environmental Education in Marginalized Watershed Communities: The Case Study of São Paulo
Keren Bromberg Hope in Environmentalism
Laura Reinsborough Portfolio including Systematizacion, Community Arts
Liz Forsberg Practising Arts-Based, Public/Popular Environmental Education
Rebecca Niblett Environmentalism for Environmentalists
Ramann Patara Access and Equity in Education and Community Development Issues at Jane-Finch
Sandra Sukhan Capacity-Building in Technical/Vocational Education: A Popular Education Approach to Sustainability
Alex Goss Rethinking Community Arts
STORYTELLING
Written and performed :
• Bankelsang production of Window on the Body by Eduardo Galeano
• Bankelsang production of The Shipwrecked Sailor
• The Tree of Life
• The Water of Life: Stories and Reflections on the Cauldron and the Grail
• As Above, So Below: Star Stories and Ancient Astronomies
• Creative Misunderstanding - The A Side: Stories Celebrating Creativity and Play
• Creative Misunderstanding - The B Side: Stories for Critical Educators
• The Story of Numbers
• Stories of Most Ancient Egypt
COMMUNITY ARTS PROJECTS – a selection
1984 Theatre of the Oppressed workshop facilitator for Montreal educators and activists
1984 Co-organizer/facilitator of Solidarity action for Latin American Refugees with Bread & Puppet
1986 Toast & Muppets, Grindstone Island
1992 Bread & Puppet, Mr. Budhoo’s Resignation Letter to the IMF and the Procession of the Victims of Progress
1992 The Ojibway Prophecy of the Seven Fires, Naming the Moment Project
2001 Bread & Puppet, Insurrection Mass and Funeral Marches for Rotten Ideas
2002 Toronto Social Forum March including puppets & theatrical interventions (coordinated with Catalyst Centre)
2005 Bread & Puppet – Circus and Passion of the Correct Moment, York University
2007 Regent Park Peace Soup Community Puppet Show with the Regent Park Community Health Centre
PUBLICATIONS
2016 (forthcoming) The Storied City in Subdivided: Building inclusion into the global city, Coach House Books , Toronto
2009 Help Me to See: A review of Postcapitalist Politics by J.K. Gibson-Graham
in Emotion, Space and Society, Vol.1, No. 2.
2007 Popular Education, Social Movements and Storytelling
in Public Intellectuals, Radical Democracy and Social Movements, (Carmel Borg and Peter Mayo, eds.) New York: Peter Lang.
2006 The Strawberry Tasted so Good: The Trickster Practices of Activist Art
in Wild Fire: Art as Activism, (Deborah Barndt, ed.) Toronto: Sumach Press.
2005 Book Review of Decreation by Anne Carson.
in Rabble.ca (2005).
2004 Book Review of Liberating Praxis: Paulo Freire's Legacy for Radical Education and Politics. (Praeger, Boulder,
Co., 2004) in Convergence, International Council for Adult Education, Toronto, Ontario.
2003 Standing at the Crossroads in Ahhhh! A Tribute to Brother Blue and Ruth Edmonds
Hill, Cambridge, MA: Yellow Moon Press, pp. 69-71.
2002 Book Review of Hamlet and the Baker’s Son by Augusto Boal.
in Labour/Le Travail (49: Spring 2002). Pp. 42-43
2000 Naming the Moment: A participatory process of political analysis for action.
in PLA Notes: Participatory Learning and Action (38: June 2000) International Institute for Environment & Development, London, UK. Pp. 73-76
1998 Book Review of Gender in Popular Education: Methods for Empowerment (Zed Books)
in Convergence (30:4), International Council for Adult Education, Toronto, Ontario. pp. 68-69.
1998 Introduction (co-authored with Robert Clarke)
in Wild Garden: Art, Education, and the Culture of Resistance, dian marino. Toronto: Between the Lines, pp. 1-18.
1998 Stop Eating Sugar
in why magazine (Winter 1998) Toronto, Ontario, pp. 64-65.
1997 When Two Rivers Meet: Popular & Labour Education
in Our Times (16:5 September/October 1997) Toronto, Ontario, pp. 53-57.
1997 Good Friends
in Listen UP! Souvenir Program: The 19th Annual Toronto Festival of Storytelling, p. 9.
1997 Ti-Flor and the Devil
in Ghostwise: A Book of Midnight Stories. Dan Yashinsky (collector);
Charlottetown, PEI: Ragweed Press, pp. 20-24.
1996 Coding Tricksters and Theory-Making: Storying Social Movements
in Local Places: In the Age of the Global City. Roger Keil, Gerda R. Wekerle, David J. Bell (eds.). Montréal: Black Rose Books, pp. 133-136.
1996 The Old Woman and the Pot
in Listen UP! Souvenir Program: The 18th Annual Toronto Festival of Storytelling, p. 5.
1996 The Archer and the Arrow
in why magazine (Spring 1996) Toronto, Ontario, pp.22-23.
1993 Popular Education in Schools?
In Synthesis/Regeneration 5: A Magazine of Green Social Thought (Winter 1993), pp. 4-8.
PRESENTATIONS
2012 Be Passionately Aware that You Could be Completely Wrong: Popular Education and Trickster Pedagogy
Keynote address to Annual Faculty of Education Graduate Student Conference, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario
2005-12 Human Rights Education and Advocacy
Annual talk to International Human Rights Training Program, Equitas, Montreal, Quebec
2011 Enough to Go Around: Popular Economics
Workshop presentation (co-facilitated with Matthew Adams) at CASAE/AERC conference, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
2010 Joining Crises: Popular Education in Toronto - Past, Present and Prospects for the Next Decade
Keynote address to Encuentro: A Popular Education Gathering Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, U. of Toronto
2008 A Modest Manifesto for Today's Organic Intellectual on panel Diverse Economies: Scholar Activism & Pedagogy
Association of American Geographers annual conference, Boston, MA, USA
2008 Popular Education and Conjunctural Analysis
Institute for Peoples’ Education and Action/Association for World Education conference, Amherst, MA, USA
2007 Reviewing A Postcapitalist Politics by J.K. Gibson-Graham
panel presentation at Rethinking Marxism, Amherst, MA, USA
2007 Remembering Freire
Talk at Remembering Freire, Rethinking Freire, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
2006 Popular Education & Community Arts
Presentation and workshop at Center for Philosophy, Interpretation and Culture at SUNY Binghampton, NY, USA
2003 On Broken Hearts and Activism
Keynote address to Annual General Meeting of the Kawartha World Issues Centre, Peterborough, Ontario
2000 Fools Ahoy! Notes Towards a Trickster Pedagogy (Keynote)
Critical Pedagogy Conference, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, (March 2000)
2000 Popular Education and Naming the Moment: A Home for the Vulnerable Witness
Paper presented at the Activist Academic Conference, Columbia University, New York, NY (April 2000)
1997 Art, Popular Education and Political Action & From Acting to Action
Workshop/Presentation at International Action Education Conference (October 24-25), Oakland, CA; sponsored by Applied Research Center.
1996 A People’s History of Popular Education
Workshop/presentation at the Pedagogy of the Oppressed Conference (April, 1996) sponsored by the University of Nebraska’s College of Continuing Studies and College of Fine Arts, Dramatic Arts Department.
1995 Trickster Discourse: popular education as border crossing culture jamming
Paper presented at the Pedagogy of the Oppressed Conference (February, 1995) sponsored by the University of Nebraska’s College of Continuing Studies and College of Fine Arts, Dramatic Arts Department.
Selected Examples of CONTRACT WORK:
CURRICULUM & PROGRAM DESIGN
York University Faculty of Environmental Studies
• Design and facilitation of Approaches to Environmental Studies, 2006 to present
• Designed and taught Critical Education for Social Change, 2001 to present
Canadian Labour Congress
• Designed and facilitated pilot of one-day course in Action Organising
• Designed and facilitated 5-day popular economics course
Canadian Auto Workers
• Designed and facilitated pilot of two one-day courses in free trade and globalization.
Centre for Social Justice
• Co-designed and delivered 1999 summer retreat for community activists: “Building the Movements for Social Justice: A Time for Rethinking & Reorganizing”.
• Co-designed 2000 summer retreat for community activists: “Social Justice Retreat 2000: Radical in the 21st Century”.
Humanities department - SUNY Binghampton (New York)
• Designed and facilitated mini-conference for national collection of popular educators and activists.
Jarvis Street College (Beat the Street/Frontier College)
• Designed and presented a series of four weekly classes for street-involved youth.
Community Worker Program - George Brown College
• Designed and delivered fourteen-week course entitled Popular Education, 2000 & 2001.
• Designed and delivered twelve-week course entitled Introduction to Community Work – Theory and Practice, 2000.
Roeher Institute
• Designed and facilitated National Family Support Meeting February 2002.
• Researched and designed guidelines for promoting democratic communication for people with disabilities.
Global Youth Connect
• Assisted in developing curricula for international youth human rights leadership program.
Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture
• Designed facilitator training for youth program.
RESEARCH & EVALUATION
J.W. McConnell Family Foundation
• Researched and wrote report on Brokering Clearinghouses.
• Researched and wrote report on Canadian Education Programs in Environmental Stewardship.
• Conducted evaluation of Montreal Innovations Roundtable Program.
FACILITATION, DESIGN, VISIONING, STRATEGIC PLANNING and TEAM-BUILDING
Tatamagouche Centre
• Designed and facilitated Naming the Moment training
• Designed and facilitated Comeuppance: Storytelling and Social Justice
Council of Canadians
• Designed and facilitated two-day Naming the Moment strategic planning session
ArtsSmarts
• Designed and facilitated two-day governance workshop
Arts Network for Youth and Children
• Designed and facilitated board strategic planning session
Ontario Arts Council
• Designed and facilitated two-day diversity issues workshop
Elementary Teachers of Toronto
• Designed and facilitated executive committee strategic planning discussion
Kensington Youth Theatre Employment Skills
• Designed and facilitated new Board member orientation workshop
• Designed and facilitated Board Retreat
Canadian Autism Society
• Designed and facilitated day-long workshop on a research agenda for autism in Canada.
International Human Rights Training Program, Canadian Human Rights Foundation (June 2002)
• Facilitated three week curriculum for international human rights workers.
Canadian Association of Foodbanks
• Designed and facilitated day-long staff roles and responsibilities workshop.
Christian Jewish Dialogue of Toronto
• Designed and facilitated day-long board vision workshop.
Canadian Multilingual Literacy Centre
• Designed and Facilitated 2-day strategic planning retreat.
Ontario Natural Food Co-op
• Facilitated 2-day bi-annual strategic planning retreat.
Ontario Workers Arts & Heritage Centre
• Designed and facilitated day-long board strategic planning retreat.
Canadian Feed the Children
• Designed and facilitated two-day-long staff strategic planning retreat.
• Designed and facilitated day-long board strategic planning retreat.
J.W. McConnell Family Foundation
• Designed and facilitated four-day Capacity Building workshop for Environmental Education organization participants in Foundation's national Green Street program.
Woodgreen Seniors’ Program
• Designed and facilitated teambuilding workshop
Community Bicycle Network
• Designed and facilitated half-day stakeholders' meeting.
Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition
• Designed and delivered day-long workshop for community animators on popular education facilitation for critical thinking.
University of Toronto Dept. of Geography Planning Program
• Designed and delivered workshop in facilitating participatory processes, 2001, 2002
Graduate Environmental Studies Students Association – York University
• Facilitated community consultation to critically examine student support for strike.
York University Faculty of Environmental Studies
• Facilitated post-strike all-faculty debriefing session.
George Brown College Human Rights Office
• Designed and facilitated series of human rights workshops for a variety of constituencies of George Brown College
Mobilization for Global Justice
• Designed and facilitated day-long retreat to examine decision-making process of coalition.
Pay the Rent and Feed the Kids
• Designed and facilitated three-hour strategic planning workshop.
St. Christopher House Meeting Place
• Team building and issues identification workshop
Equitas – The Canadian Centre for Human Rights Education
• Facilitated 5-day curriculum design workshop (Nairobi, Kenya)
• Co-facilitated consultation between UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and women’s groups from Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia (Tbilisi, Georgia)
Regent Park Focus
• Designed and facilitated strategic planning workshop
Toronto Neighbourhood Centres CD Renewal Project
• Co-designed popular education workshops
Access Alliance
• Designed and facilitated workshop on public presentation and facilitation skills
Ontario Council for International Cooperation
• Designed and facilitated three regional strategic planning workshops
Family Services Association of Toronto
• Designed and facilitated two-day training in democratic design and facilitation skills
