Praxis Week 2025. Empty Chairs Installation, Clothing Line of Voices, Footsteps of Activism
By Billy Goodwin
The final event for Praxis Week 2025 involved an immersive installation The Shtepps, devised and installed by Michelle Todd – a UCC student with a passion for refugee rights and inclusive education.
As part of the installation participants were invited to silently reflect, either on the installation itself, or indeed on Praxis Week overall, which were then read aloud as part of the closing reflections event.
This event proved to be highly impactful with reflections on the installation itself reflecting the idea that “it brought to life the sometimes abstract ideas which we have been talking about all week”, while others also noted the “…lasting impression the event had made”.
This event also included a rousing closing speech from Dr Gertrude Cotter who reflected on the impactfully thought-provoking nature of a week which was “… a deeply moving journey which was undertaken with integrity, creativity and solidarity”. Further, Dr Cotter concluded here remarks by reflecting the idea that “… here in this space of reflection we end not with silence but with presence. Presence to the injustices we have seen and discussed, presence to the hope and power that exists in collective action, and presence to the responsibilities that we carry as educators, students, citizens, and human beings”. Ultimately, as Dr Cotter reminds us “Global justice education is not a ‘side-project’, it is, and should be, central to the kind of world we want to live in – one rooted in justice, equity, dignity, and care”. A point which was further emphasised by Dr Cotter’s invocation of Arundhati Roy words “Another world is not only possible … she is on her way. On a quiet day I can hear her beathing. Let us not wait for that world, let us build it in our classrooms, in our communities, and in our selves”.
Praxis Week 2025, Keynote by Karol Balfe.
Bill Goodwin: PhD researcher in sociology, digital media, and critical discourse.
Dr. Gertrude Cotter: Lecturer in Global Citizenship Education at UCC and academic coordinator of the Praxis Project.
