Aslıhan Şenel
Collective Imaginations, an Ongoing Exploration of Transformative Pedagogy
‘Collective imaginations’ refers to both a poetical and experimental, and also a critical and responsive pedagogical approach, which is aimed for a transformation of self for students and tutors on the one hand and of architectural design education and practice on the other. Within this approach, we explore storytelling as a playful, engaging, and joyful act of production. Drawing on feminist and radical education theories, storytelling allows us to acknowledge multiple realities and collectively imagine ways to move beyond those. Practices of telling, re-telling, and co-telling stories develop various collaborations and a sense of mutual care, in other words, ways of making and becoming with.
BIOGRAPHY
Aslıhan Şenel (PhD) is an Istanbul-based architect, researcher, and educator, working with multidisciplinary and collective methods. She is an associate professor at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), where she teaches architectural theory and design. She studied architecture at ITU and completed her PhD at University College London, where she also taught from 2004 to 2008. Her research focuses on feminist theories, critical mapping, representational theories and practices, and collective practices of making.