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wine women and philosophy roadshow 2012
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What are you doing this summer and fall?
We know what we're doing. We're heading out West and we're taking wine women and philosophy with us! We have already worked out a route, and come up with a tentative schedule for our 5 month trek across the country. Now it's your turn! Below, you'll find all the information you need to become part of an adventure that's taking wine women and philosophy out of our living room... And into yours! |
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What are we offering?
We are offering women across Canada the opportunity to experience one of our salon evenings in their home, in a local cafe or wine bar, at a public library or community centre - in fact, in any locale to which you have access and in which you feel a group of women could come together to enjoy an evening of talk and reflection around a chosen philosophical theme. You can pick a theme from our menu of "tried and tested" successful Montreal-based salons (see list below). Or you can come up with your own theme, and together, we'll turn it into an exciting philosophical experience for you and your friends. |
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Why a salon?
Philosophy in the western world has been a realm largely dominated by men. This is a pity, for as we have discovered in the course of running regular salon evenings in Montreal over the past three years, women make excellent philosophers! In 18th century France, women knew this about themselves. But this knowledge wasn't enough to gain access to established centers of higher learning. This exclusion meant that certain women became creative - turning their living rooms (or salons) into sites of learning. Calling themselves salonnieres, these women encouraged other women to come together to explore new ideas, to be exposed to the Arts, and to champion social and political causes. In creating our wwp salon series we have built on this history of women coming together to learn in spaces not traditionally recognized as seats of higher learning, and we have prioritized the educational needs and interests of women in mid-life and beyond. |
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Why do a salon evening?
and yet another... "Who knew there was a philosopher in me!" |
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What does a salon evening look like?
A salon evening (or afternoon) runs for 3 hours, including half an hour for refreshments. We start with a topic: past topics have ranged from How we look at photographs to Finding your body in your favourite poem We then link a theme to that topic: for example, our look at family photographs becomes a way to explore the place of nostalgia and memory in our lives; our dip into your favourite poem opens the door to discussing the difference between reading poetry for what it says (the realm of representation) and discovering within that poem the traces of a living, breathing body (the workings of affect) We introduce, next, some philosophical concepts to highlight connections between topic and theme, and to build a shared language that helps to prompt our collective working of ideas and individual understandings: Roland Barthes' notions of studium and punctum, for example, help to build a bridge between the piercing effect that a detail in a photograph can have on us and its triggering of a memory pang; Julia Kristeva's interpretation of the rhythmic and womb-like chora, for example, enables us to better grasp how certain styles of writing are more bodily than others We use props! Drawing on a variety of conversational forms, playful exercises and artifacts we turn abstract concepts into grounded insights, and taken-for-granted assumptions into interesting questions. In this way, a cookie cutter and a piece of dough become a way to understand how 'the male gaze' works; sifting through a box of seemingly random objects illuminates a post-structuralist line of flight. |
Interested? You can build your salon evening out of one of these "tried and tested" themes:
More details on most of the themes above are available on our blog. |
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What are the hosting responsibilities?
We need one or two women to co-host the salon evening with us. Your job as a co-host is to:
How much does it cost?
The cost of a wwp roadshow salon evening is $20/person, based on a minimum of 8 women and a maximum of 10 women (including the co-host(s)). Smaller groups will be charged a total of $150. We have found that a group of between 6 and 10 women works best with our pedagogical approach.
What will you go away with?
When are we in your area?
Below you'll find a list of cities that we will be passing through, and the date we intend to arrive in that city. Please note that our salon events are not restricted to these cities alone...Quite the opposite! We are keen to venture off the beaten path and bring wine women and philosophy to as many places as possible. So use these cities as a guideline for determining when the roadshow is likely to be passing closest to you, and we'll start planning from there... |
Quebec
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Yukon
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How do I get involved?
email us at wwpgetaway@live.com if you would like to host a salon evening in your area, or if you are eager to attend one. We look forward to hearing from you. |
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