Erasing to reveal: A poetry workshop for critical minds. 

Inge Brokerhof/workshop

Description

What happens when we let poetry enter the workplace – or the classroom? In this creative, hands-on workshop, you’ll craft your own “blackout poem”: erasing words from existing organizational or educational texts to reveal a hidden voice within them. What remains is your poem: a fragment, a reflection, a quiet rebellion against the expected. Playful yet critical, this exercise invites you to rethink the language that shapes our institutions, our teaching, and our thinking. You’ll leave not only with a short poem, but perhaps also with a new way of reading and questioning the world.

Biography

Inge Brokerhof is a researcher, lecturer, and writer with a focus on narrative identity, organizational psychology, storytelling, poetry, organizational change, business ethics, and rhetoric. She obtained her PhD (VU Amsterdam) in 2021, titled "Fictional narratives at work: How stories can shape career identity, future work selves and moral development". During her PhD, she worked as a researcher at Harvard Business School and the University of Bath. She completed an MPhil in Social and Developmental Psychology at the University of Cambridge and holds a Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences and Rhetoric from University College Roosevelt. Currently, she works as a freelance researcher, lecturer, consultant, and writer for her company, stories-@-work. 

Who am I to defend you? An invitation for perspectival nimbleness. 

Lara van Peppen & Nanna Freeman/workshop

Description

In this workshop, we will first familiarize ourselves with the concept of perspectival nimbleness, coined by Dutch philosopher Lammert Kamphuis, before experiencing it ourselves through a theatrical exercise. Due to the Dutch origins of this concept, the theoretical introduction will be given in Dutch. In the end, we will leave with an experience that gives us insight into how practicing perspectival nimbleness may affect our (critical) thinking.

Biographies

Lara van Peppen works at Avans University of Applied Sciences as an associate lector and writes: "I have been researching critical thinking in higher education since 2016. With a background in cognitive psychology, I’ve always been fascinated by how people think, learn, and collaborate. In recent years, my focus has shifted toward perspectival agility: the ability to move flexibly between different viewpoints. This is a key skill for working together effectively, especially when tackling complex societal challenges. I aim to help people think with more openness, curiosity, and understanding - so we can shape solutions collectively."

Nanna Freeman never thought she’d become a teacher – let alone an award-winning one – but swiftly found her passion substitute teaching while completing her Master’s degree in Art & Literature. She has made it her mission to continuously improve the quality and engagement of her teaching through innovation and creativity.  In her teaching, she draws from education research, her own foundations in business and literature, a broad interest in pop culture, and a tendency to go against the grain. She is a founding member of the team behind Fragments.

Enlightened…really?: illuminating/unmasking an “activist”

Dr Helen Limon & Basil Hillman /workshop

Description

A close viewing of short, pivotal scenes from the TV series, Enlightened, specifically Season 1 Episode 10, “Burn it Down,” suggests a nuanced reading of the leading protagonist, Amy, as a corporate “activist” is in order. Post-breakdown and therapy, Amy returns to her toxic workplace and presents as a willing worker and awakened activist. However, Amy’s facial reactions in a scene where she gathers evidence of corporate misdeeds seem to betray her “real” motivation. Is Amy a legitimate activist or rather a person who is instrumentalising activism to meet her ambitions of returning as a higher-status employee with greater agency? How is this way of working with fragments and scenes in the module understood and received by students? Does it “work”? Is it interesting? Does it support clearer critical thinking?

Biography

Dr. Helen Limon is a lecturer in the European Studies Program of the Management and Organisation faculty of THUAS. Her teaching is focused on the role of civil society in upholding democracy. She is the co-creator and module leader of a new KOM undergraduate minor on the theory and creative practices of civil society activism, The Art of Protest. Before joining THUAS in 2020, she completed post-doctoral research on Anger and Agency, using close readings of picture books for children as a research method, focusing on the lived experiences of military veterans and migrants stranded on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Basil Hillman is a third-year exchange student from Florida, USA, in the European Studies programme.

Past Visions as Future Imagiaries 

Alex Zakkas & Chris Detweiler/workshop

Description 

“I like to think (and the sooner the better!) of a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computers live together in mutually programming harmony like pure water touching clear sky. I like to think (right now, please!) of a cybernetic forest filled with pines and electronics where deer stroll peacefully past computers as if they were flowers with spinning blossoms.  I like to think (it has to be!) of a cybernetic ecology where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothers and sisters, and all watched over by machines of loving grace.” - Richard Brautigan

Biography

Alex Zakkas and Chris Detweiler are both lecturers and researchers at THUAS / IT & Design and the Philosophy & Professional Practice research group.