Rajesh and I are working on plans to combine our two mailing lists.  He has a one that he has used historically for his blogs of many years and I have maintained this list for the past 3-4 years.  Our plans are to continue to send our blogs out at least twice a month, but have them posted as well on our UNESCO Chair web site.

It may take us a few times to get things sorted out, so please be patient.  In the meantime, Rajesh is mostly in New Delhi these days and Budd mostly in London, but as you will see below, there is a lot of action in the knowledge democracy world!

Crystal Tremblay, student volunteers, Ranjan Sinha and Namita Kumari are all working on additional ways to use the social media through a dedicated #twitter account and a Facebook page. Stay tuned:)

As usual we hope that your work, your health and your families and friends are well.

Rajesh Tandon and Budd L Hall

Co-Chairs

UNESCO Chair in Community-Based Research and Social Responsibility in Higher Education

Web site: http://unescochair-cbrsr.org 

Twitter @buddhall

The Pulse of the Knowledge Democracy Movement Quickens

The UNESCO Chair in CBR and Social Responsibility in Higher Education has entered into several months of heightened activity beginning with the Canadian launch of the Chair at the First People’s House at the University of Victoria on March 4^th, 2013. Co-Chairs Rajesh Tandon and Budd Hall were ‘blanketed’ by Cowichan First Nation’s Elders Pat and Ron George and drummed into the ceremonial hall by Elder’s Vic and Joyce Underwood. Statements from the President of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, the President of the University of Victoria, an Indigenous student and from Rajesh and Budd were heard.

Authors of the regional papers for the GUNi World Report on Higher Education were in Victoria along with GUNi leadership of Cristina Esgrigas and Jesus Granados Sanchez to refine and debate the contributions to the World Report that will be published in November of 2013.

Over the next few months, the UNESCO chair team will be participating in  a number of important events where strategies, theories and practices of knowledge democracy will be debated and deepened.  Budd will be at the National University of Ireland, Galway for a public lecture and a workshop April 11/12 . Budd and Rajesh will be in Saudi Arabia April 15-17 for an International Conference on Social Responsibility In Higher Education. May 12-15 is the long awaited and strategically important GUNi conference on “Knowledge, Transformation and Higher Education” in Barcelona where we hope that representatives of all the key global networks will be present. Budd, Rajesh, Namita and Crystal will be in Barcelona for a set of many meetings.

June 2-6 will find Budd,  Rajesh and Crystal at the Canadian Congress for the Humanities and the Social Sciences with Budd continuing on to Newfoundland for CUExpo 2013, the large national event bringing community and university folks together in Canada and Rajesh Keynoting the Global Trends in Media and Higher Education Conference in Toronto.

The Question: How can all this exposure, focus and attention to the role of knowledge creation and co-creation between and amongst community groups and movements and higher education bodies move the equity and social justice agenda forward?