When: May 8, 2017
Where: Quito, Ecuador
Institution: Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar
Facilitator: Doris Sommer
On Monday, May 8th, there was a really intense day in classrooms at Universidad Andina. During the afternoon, Professor Doris Sommer from Harvard University led a Pre-Texts workshop: Literacy, Innovation and Citizenship. About 70 teachers from different levels, administrators, psychologists and community Leaders attended the class. The activities developed in the workshop were an introduction to a pedagogy based on popular practices that showed several mechanisms to build bridges between knowledge in order to weave a strong, agile, and egalitarian society.
Firstly, a short text created by Venezuelan writer Teresa de la Parra, about Manuela Sáenz was read out loud. Then, each of the participants elaborated a cardboard publication, exhibited the text that was hung with pincers on a clothesline and did theatrical representations. All the participants recognized the dynamism from Professor Sommer as the workshop leader and gave testimony to have experimented the infinite possibilities of ‘serious playing’ with a literary text in ways that allow the reader to have a better assimilation, and tools for teachers to implement new strategies.
At the end of the day, in the main room Sala Manuela Sáenz, Professor Doris Sommer facilitated the conference, “The Work of Art in the World: Civic Culture and Public Humanities,” where more than 90 people attended. Doris Sommer’s presence in Quito was enriching not only for teachers, but for students and the general public.
Read more about Prof. Doris Sommer’s visit to Quito, Ecuador:
https://www.uasb.edu.ec/web/area-de-letras/contenido?profesora-de-harvard-doris-sommer-en-la-andina
https://www.eluniverso.com/opinion/2017/05/05/nota/6167941/doris-sommer-maestra