TEACHING

I work with universities, schools, research institutes and learning organizations to create courses, classes, professional development programs, creative residencies, learning journeys and workshops that respond to the needs of our century. My teaching expertise draws primarily from the intersection(s) of design, embodied awareness and transformative learning. Below is a summary of relevant learning experiences I have designed and taught over the last 10+ years. The contexts of these learning experiences vary in terms of age group (from high school students to adult learners and senior practitioners), country/region, duration (from immersive short weeks to year-long courses and programs) and delivery (offline, online and/or hybrid). I decided to showcase my experience in diverse settings to emphasize my fundamental belief in life-long learning. As an educator, I am ultimately inspired to develop adaptive learning experiences that are rooted in action learning, situated needs, critical making and that embrace the values of emergence and not knowing.

(a) COURSES & PROGRAMS

Aalto University. Art & Problem-based Research Methodologies. Nordic Visual Studies and Art Education (Master). Helsinki, Finland, 2024.

Aalto University. Project Management (in the Creative Sector). Nordic Visual Studies and Art Education (Master). Helsinki, Finland, 2024.

Avenues The World School. Designing Futures. São Paulo, Brazil, 2021-22.

Aalto University. Embodying Radical Creativity. Helsinki, Finland, 2022.

Presencing Institute. Advanced Social Presencing Theater. New York & Berlin, 2016-21.

Presencing Institute. Ecosystem Leadership Foundation Program: Social Arts. Berlin, Germany, 2019.

NYCO Creativity Odyssey. Introduction to Design Thinking. New York, USA. 2016-17.

(b) CREATIVE RESIDENCIES & learning journeys

Monash University. Making Aware Residency. Florence, Italy, June-July 2023.

FACENS University (Lab of Social-Emotional Collaboration). Metrô Enlace & the Inner Development Goals. São Paulo, Brazil, 2019-21.

Presencing Institute & La Vaca Independente. Social Arts Residency. Yucatán, Mexico, 2019-20.

Presencing Institute. Social Arts Writing Retreat. Nørre-Snede, Denmark, 2018-19.

Journeys for Change. Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation in Brazil. São Paulo & Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2014.

Unltd India. TEDx Mumbai. Mumbai, India, 2012.

AIESEC. AIESEC International Congress. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2009.

(C) Workshops

Universidad de Temuco (Facultad de Arquitectura, Artes y Diseño). Future Imaginaries: If not this, then what? Temuco, Chile, 2021.

HZ University of Applied Sciences (Global Project and Change Management). The Practice of Social Design. Middelburg, Netherlands, 2021.

R.N. Podar School. Making Social-Emotional Learning Visible for Teachers. Mumbai, India, 2020.

The Oslo School of Architecture & Design (Anticipation Conference). Future-making in Education. Oslo, Norway, 2019.

Parsons the New School for Design. Elasticity in Social Innovation. New York City, 2016.

Parsons the New School for Design. Designing Engagement Models. New York City, 2015.

R.N. Podar School. Introduction to Design Thinking for Teachers. Mumbai, India, 2015.

TRANDISCIPLINARY, CREATIVE & SOCIALLY-ENGAGED PEDAGOGIES

As I have a trandisciplinary orientation to my design practice, my teaching expertise draws from multiple fields of knowledge, including: design, future-making, systems thinking, social innovation & entrepreneurship, transformative education, awareness-based action research, phenomenology, social arts and embodiment. Below I outline a few teaching orientations which I combine and adapt to generate new courses and learning experiences.

(1) Creative processes: I often organize my teaching content around a creative process, which includes the learner’s ability to prototype and give form to an emerging output. These outputs are context-dependent and can include products, experiences, protocols, models of engagement, etc. My goal is to teach students how to prototype (through making!) a tangible and visible output while engaging with emergence and not knowing—which are two inherent characteristics of any creative process. I tend to explore the creative process in two dimensions: as the individual and as a collective. This approach is based on a belief that we are inherently part of social groups/systems and therefore we need to train in how to co-create from an awareness of the whole. I also believe this kind of awareness has important social implications—as the learner prepares to address social and environmental issues that are, anyways, collective.

Key topics: Future-making, Prototyping the Emerging Future, Making the Intangible Visible, Co-design.

(2) Embodied Awareness: as an advanced practitioner and trainer of Social Presencing Theater, I often rely on embodied knowing as a guiding source of wisdom for individuals and groups. The embodiment exercises I have been trained in (and also helped co-develop) rely on the basic ordinary presence of our bodies: how we feel, how we move, how we rest. In my classes, I often adapt and integrate simple embodied exercises that help learners turn back to their own embodied experience as a source of guiding wisdom. These exercises can be done individually, in pairs, small groups (3-5 people) and large groups (15-25 people).

Key topics: Embodied Awareness, Awareness-based Design, Awareness-based Systems Change, Perception & Sensorial Experience.

(3) Transformations and Transitions: I contextualize learning within a larger scope of transformation. The transformation could be both individual and/or collective (and often times, they are both!). For example, individual transformation might include shifts of ways of thinking, feeling and/or knowing. While a collective transformation might involve shifts in how a group relates to one another, and/or how a group creates together. This way, by emphasizing transformation, I tend to observe transitions and shifts as an indicator of a transformative process. A transition simply means a shift from one thing into another.

Key topics: Systems Thinking, Complexity, Transformative Learning, Designing for Agency.

PORTFOLIO SAMPLES

Below I share some samples and descriptions of teaching & learning experiences which I co-designed and taught. Drawing on the three key teaching orientations I outline above, I reflect on how these teaching experiences demonstrate aspects of creative processes, embodied awareness and transformations/transitions.

Aalto university | helsinki, finland (2022)

Course: Embodying Radical Creativity (Professional Development)

I co-designed and co-taught a semester long professional development program for Aalto University staff and students called Embodying Radical Creativity. I co-taught this course with American choreographer Arawana Hayashi. We used embodied awareness exercises combined with other art forms (drawing, working with clay) to support the participants make their seed ideas and intentions for cultivating radical creativity visible. This program was a semester long initiative with both online and offline sessions. You can read more about it here.

MONASH UNIVERSITY | Florence, Italy (2023)

Course: Making Aware: Designing to Make the Intangible Visible (Social Arts Residency)

As a conclusion to my PhD, I designed and hosted a two-month artistic residency at the Monash University campus in Italy. I invited and selected a group of 15 photographers, performers, educators and film makers to engage with the core question I asked during my PhD: How to make the intangible visible? I offered the participants a framework for an open creative process (i.e. iterative prototyping) and asked the group to respond back to my PhD by creating visible and/or tangible artifacts to make the intangible visible. By intangible, the participants chose to explore topics such as feelings, thoughts, memories, etc. The complete PhD exhibition can be seen here.

AVENUES THE WORLD SCHOOL | SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL (2021-22)

Course: Designing Futures (11th Grade)

At Avenues, Art & Design is part of an interdisciplinary project-based initiative of teaching Futures Literacy to 11th grade students. Through Art & Design, I explored (with students) the notion of making as a creative act that gives shape to the future. Through experimentation and iterations, we emphasized action learning—that is, how the students could learn from their own process of trying things out. Making was introduced in two ways: (1) by motivating students to experiment with using various technologies & crafts (3D printing, laser cutting, sewing, drawing, amongst others)—therefore, being able to produce tangible artifacts as outcomes of their projects; (2) by introducing students to the idea of making the intangible tangible, that is, attending to the experiential, meaning-based and aesthetic qualities that often derive from what they make. We emphasized that Art & Design can be about making things together, as an act of collective creativity. This way, the students discovered tools to make things in relationship with their peers and the grade level as a whole. Read more here.

Universidad de Temuco | TEMUCO, CHILE (2021)

Course: Future Imaginaries: If not this, then what? (online)

As a guest lecturer, I was invited to host a week-long workshop for architecture, arts and design students at the University of Temuco (Chile). The course was framed within the theme of “co-creating the emerging future”. I worked with the students to draw from their own individual, felt experience of the news and the media—in terms of how they respond emotionally and sensorially to the overwhelm of global and local crisis. The students relied on their own felt, embodied experiences to access collective longings and hopes for the future of the city of Temuco. They ultimately produced a video, which was framed a “design brief for their longings and hopes”. The video can be seen here.

PRESENCING INSTITUTE | CHINA, DENMARK, GERMANY, ITALY, MEXICO, AND THE US (2016-20)

Course: Advanced Social Presencing Theater (Professional Development)

From 2016-18, I was a core teaching faculty an the annual Social Presencing Theater Advanced Program—training senior change makers, leaders and entrepreneurs in using an embodied awareness methodology for social systems change called Social Presencing Theater. I also played the role of co-creator and core teaching faculty in the Social Arts Residency Studio (2019-20). The residency was a 10-day immersive experience inviting creative practitioners and local youth to use embodied awareness as a creative approach to change-making. In 2019, I also co-taught the Social Arts track within the Presencing Institute’s Ecosystem Leadership Program in Berlin, Germany. The program is a 4-day immersive learning experience for multi-sector leaders and change agents to activate ecosystem awareness-based transformation in their regions. In all these programs, my primary focus was to help participants reflect and make sense of intangible experiences. To do so, I co-designed and taught approaches using drawing, working with clay, photography and film. These visible art forms, after all, helped the participants ground their embodied, sensorial, felt experiences in tangible forms—and, in this way, draw fresh learnings and perspectives of their own lived experiences.

JOURNEYS FOR CHANGE | RIO DE JANEIRO & SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL (2014)

Course: Journeys for Change Brazil (Professional Development)

In 2014, I co-designed and co-facilitated an immersive learning journey on social innovation in Brazil for 10 global leaders. Over 9 days, we visited and met social entrepreneurs and innovators in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. I decided to include this learning experience in this portfolio sample because it demonstrates my belief in immersive, field experiential learning. Among the projects we visited, it included: Natura, Fight for Peace, Meu Rio and Observatório de Favelas. More can be read here.