What is Cultural Literacy Everywhere (CLE)?

Cultural Literacy Everywhere (CLE) is an international, research-led association. Our aim is to promote high quality, interdisciplinary research into the relationship between literacy, culture, educational policy and social change and in so doing, to raise public awareness of what it means to be ‘culturally literate’ in a globally divided, technologically dominated world.

As an association, we bring together academics, educators, artists, policy makers and members of the culture industries through conferences, workshops, special events, funded projects, special interest groups and international partnerships leading to the dissemination of on-line publications, work in progress and up to date information on cultural issues.

We welcome the participation of individual researchers, project coordinators and cultural actors from a range of disciplines and culture-related professions in Higher Education and the public sector.’

The Aims and Objectives of CLE

The CLE initiative has two main aims: to achieve a broad shared understanding of the notion of Cultural Literacy and its importance; and to increase the visibility of the challenge presented by Cultural Literacy and of the contributions which LCS scholars and their fellow researchers continue to make in this area.

To achieve these aims, CLE is bringing together academics, educators, artists, policy-makers and members of the cultural industries in a Forum for discussion and development worldwide.

UPCOMING CLE EVENT

CLE SYMPOSIUM 2022: DWELLING

Hosted by University College Dublin

11 – 13 May 2022 by Zoom

Humanity’s sense of place and space has never been more prominent than it is today. The COVID-19 pandemic has confined many people to cramped urban dwellings or inhospitable spaces (e.g., quarantine hotels), turned homes into offices, and changed the topography of everyday life. This crisis, along with economic inequalities, climate change, and mass migration events, confirms the need for a radical reassessment of sustainable human dwelling on earth. This Symposium will engage in creative and critical discussion on dwelling in both the verbal and the nominal sense and on how we live or wish to live in the world.

Click on ‘Dwelling 2022’ below to learn more about the symposium.

Registration is now closed

Dwelling 2022
Symposium PADLET
Updated Programme
Break-Out Groupings
Abstracts & Bios

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS


Alison Blunt is Deputy Vice Principal for Impact (Culture, Civic & Community) and Professor of Geography at Queen Mary University of London. She is also co-director of the Centre for Studies of Home, a partnership between Queen Mary and the Museum of the Home. Her research interests are on home, migration and the city and she is leading the AHRC project ‘Stay Home Stories’ (www.stayhomestories.co.uk) funded by the AHRC as part of the UKRI rapid response to COVID-19. The second edition of her co-authored book Home (with Robyn Dowling) will be published by Routledge in 2022.
Colin Ellard is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Waterloo and director of its Urban Realities Laboratory. Ellard works at the intersection of urban and architectural design and experimental psychology. He has developed a novel set of methods by which the human response to the built environment can be measured using a toolkit consisting of both traditional psychological methods and sensor-based measurements of physiology and brain function. Ellard publishes his work frequently in the peer-reviewed scientific literature but he also engages in extensive knowledge mobilization work involving collaboration and partnership with architects, museums and other NGOs. He travels widely (until recently!) giving keynotes for groups interested in architecture, design, and planning. Ellard is a member of the advisory committee for the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, an Urban Design and Mental Health Fellow, a Salzburg Global Fellow and an active participant in the European initiative promoting Baukultur beginning with the Davos Declaration of 2018 and continuing with international efforts to enhance the capacity of the built environment to promote wellness. Ellard’s most recent book is Places of the Heart (Bellevue Literary Press, 2015).


Rachel Hurdley is a Research Fellow in cultural sociology at Cardiff University School of Social Sciences. Her interests are the seemingly trivial spaces and things of everyday life. She also does archival research, and is fascinated with archival artefacts. Methodology and methods, particularly drawing and materiality, is another focus. She is currently broadcasting a series of programmes on BBC Radio 4 examining the five objects discussed in this paper