"Inquiry does not begin with conceptual organization or relevancies of sociological discourse, but in actual experience as embedded in the particular historical forms of social relations that determine that experience." (Dorothy Smith, 1987) 

The Research for Social Change Lab (RSCL) and the Interdisciplinary Social Research (IDSR) PhD Program at Trent University co-hosted a two-day open school and anti-conference to celebrate the scholarly contributions and recent passing (2022) of Canadian feminist sociologist, Dorothy Smith.

What is this event all about?

This event was a celebration of Dorothy Smith’s scholarship, including her contributions to studies in the social organization of knowledge, political activist ethnography, and her development of institutional ethnography (IE). Smith is recognized for innovating a mode of sociological inquiry designed to serve the aims of struggle or, more humbly, to simply be useful to people working outside and/or against what she refers to as the ruling relations of contemporary western societies.  

The Open School/Anti-conference was also a move to resist the erosion of intellectual life and the normalization of academic performativity in the neoliberal university.  

The RSCL’s director Naomi Nichols developed the Open School model with her graduate students at McGill University. Every second year they organized and hosted grassroots IE anti-conferences, where Dorothy Smith and other respected institutional ethnographers came and studied with them for two days, gave talks, and – most importantly – listened to and commented on student work.  

Whereas typical academic conferences are based on a competitive peer review process that privileges the communication of scholarly findings, our anti-conferences centre listening, learning, and the refinement of emerging ideas. Most of the invited panelists for the 2023 Open School and Anti-Conference participated in the anti-conferences we organized at McGill when they were students.  

This willingness to participate in and support ongoing efforts to make a collective intellectual life reflects the spirit of our anti-conference and open school efforts. 

The first day offered a combination of seminar discussions and panel discussions rooted in Smith’s work.

Panelists’ research interests span HIV criminalization, community organizing, homelessness, policing, digital literacy, education, digitization, and the evidential turn in not-for-profit contexts.  

The second day focused on student work. Students presented works and ideas that were in progress and their presentations were followed by a sustained period of community discussion.

Panelist presentations

Missed the event? You can watch the panelists discussions on our YouTube channel. Click here.