“It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds makes stories”
- Donna Haraway
“It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds makes stories”
If you spent a year learning new stories, what worlds would you build?
Living Systems is a year-long voyage into the outer realms, an exploration in what lies outside of the isolation of the colonial reality.
Living Systems 2024
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REASONS WHY YOU MAY NOT BE READY
- You believe that safe spaces where triggers can be prevented are possible.
- It's difficult for you to sit in the discomfort of disagreement without invoking policing or canceling.
- You have a strong investment in social and racial justice being the only way.
- You long for a space where your dreams are validated and not considered divisive.
- You're ready for intellectual intimacy and relational learning spaces.
- You're disappointed with the failure of social justice movements.
ARE YOU READY FOR
LIVING SYSTEMS?
THE LIVING SYSTEMS PROCESS
MEETINGS
Weekly offerings including thematic lectures, office hours, and guest teachers.
OFFICE HOURS
Bi-Weekly opportunity to bring your questions about the curriculum.
GUEST LECTURES
Monthly experts offering living systems perspectives from diverse fields.
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WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
This curriculum will map knowledges from multiple domains including decolonial theory, emergence, the Akasha, metaphysics, indigenous psychologies, borderland theory, third space and decolonial feminisms, and posthumanism. Students will have lifetime access to the curriculum and an option to return as alumni in subsequent cohorts at discounted rates.
Curriculum Overview
This course unfolds over the span of a year. What will we cover together? This curriculum overview will give you a picture of the modules and their contents. Please note, the modules are not mapped directly onto monthly themes. Some modules may span several months, and some are only a month-long.
Module 1- Core Concepts
Module 2- Decentering The Human Being
In this introductory module, we dig into core concepts of the class, like decoloniality and ontology and how we participate in these structures. We explore the work or Anibal Quijano, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Maria Lugones, and Nelson Maldonado-Torres.
Explore the colonial origins of the construct of the “human” being, who gets to count as human and who is considered “subhuman.” Here we explore posthumanism, Baradian entanglement, intra-action, and becoming versus being. We explore the work of Karen Barad and Francesca Ferranda.
Module 3- Dissolving Borders
Module 4- Dreamwork
What is a body and how do you know? What are the boundaries of a body when we change scale perspective? How do we apply this fluctuating take on body boundaries to physical and metaphysical borders? Here we consider the concepts of complexity theory, scale, fixity, emergence, and disorientation.
What if the dream is dreaming us? Dreaming and the dreamworld has provided people across the knowledge making, connection to spirit, ancestors, and the unconscious. We explore the work of Freud and Jung, David Abrams, Gloria Anzaldua, Donald Fixico and indigenous psychological approaches on dreaming.
Module 5- Understanding Living Systems
Module 6- Ontological Design
What is ecology? How can we reorient toward systems of life where everything and everyone plays a vital role sustaining life? How do we face extinction as a cycle instead of an end and what emerges in cycles? We lean into concepts of homeostasis, complex systems. problematizing the anthropocene, and the work of Maturana & Varela, Vandana Shiva, and Donna Haraway.
The tools and technologies that we use design us too. What emergent possibilities exist when we explore our agency as designers of our realities? In this module we explore the work of Robin Wall Kimmerer, Arturo Escobar, Daniel Fraga, Vandana Shiva and Tony Fry.
Module 7- Research as Praxis
As you emerge with new concepts and perspectives we take to the external world and ask knowledge-making questions about ontologies. We explore ourselves as living researchers co-creating emergent knowledge as members of living systems. In this module we explore how research has been used as a tool of colonial violence, and how we can reimagine knowledge making as a relational practice.
TUITION TIERS
The goal of this course is to charge $225 per person per month. At this rate I am able to offset the administrative costs incurred behind the scenes, pay the guest teachers well for their time and energy, subsidize scholarship funds for students that need assistance, and pay myself a living wage for Los Angeles, where I live.
$125/mo
Tuition for Entire Course- $1500
tier #1
$175/mo
Tuition for Entire Course- $2100
tier #2
$225/mo
Tuition for Entire Course - $2700
$275/mo
Tuition for Entire Course- $3300
tier #3
tier #4
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All classes will be in Pacific Time (PST).
What time zone are the live classes?
Students will get to participate in small groups, called pods, where they can build more intimate relationships with each other. Pods are options, but participation is highly encouraged and very rewarding.
Financial aid will be available once registration is close to closing. If you are in need of financial assistance, please be patient, as you may have to wait until just before the course begins to get notification on receiving it. We want to work with you, so hang in there!
Do you provide financial aid?
You can choose your level of engagement, but we recommend spending as much time as you need to understand the curriculum (2-4 hours a week).
How much time can I expect to spend on this course?
All classes will be recorded and available online to watch at your own pace.
What if I can’t attend the live classes?
Are you in a position to donate more to subsidize others? If you would like to make a subsidy contribution, please email me at leah@crystalsofaltamira.com.
Can I donate?
How will I get to know my fellow cohorts?
Yes, if you’d like to pay for the entire year up front, please email help@crystalsofaltamira.
Can I pay in Full?
Tuition will be paid via subscription. You will be charged monthly at the tier you sign up for.
