Dr. Erin Spring: "The Digital Blackfoot Storytelling Project"

Thu. Feb. 11 02:30 PM - Thu. Feb. 11 03:30 PM
Contact: Larissa Wodtke l.wodtke@uwinnipeg.ca
Location: 2D11

The Digital Blackfoot Storytelling Project: Methodological Approaches to Child-Centred, Community-Driven Research

A Lecture by Dr. Erin Spring, University of Lethbridge

February 11, 2:30PM-3:30PM

Room 2D11

The recently released Executive Summary of the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada calls for the production of culturally appropriate and relevant environments as a means of promoting child welfare and resilience. In this talk, Dr. Spring will reflect on the early stages of an ongoing interdisciplinary project that brings together multiple researchers from the Institute for Child and Youth Studies at the University of Lethbridge, policy makers, and community members from a non-profit organization for urban Blackfoot children. Blackfoot youth are becoming para-ethnographers, collecting stories about their culture, history, and language from their Elders to upload into a digital library. This library will assist in the delivery of culturally relevant educational programming, while facilitating intergenerational knowledge transmission. Dr. Spring’s talk will explore the value of using digital methods, photo-elicitation, and child-centered action research to achieve the aim of producing an enduring, culturally-relevant resource for the youth. Specifically, she will reflect on the ways in which these methodological approaches are centering the children and community members as active participants in the research project.

Dr. Erin Spring is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute for Child and Youth Studies at the University of Lethbridge. She is currently conducting reader-response research with Blackfoot youth living on a reserve in Southern Alberta, which is funded through the International Board of Books for Young People’s Frances E. Russell Grant. She is also the project manager of the Digital Blackfoot Storytelling Project. Erin completed her PhD in Children’s Literature at the University of Cambridge.

This event is presented by the Centre for Research in Young People’s Texts and Cultures.