the work of WIND AIR LAND SEA

Reading the River: Session 3

Steve G. Hoffman, Zoe Hopkins, and Polina Teif

September 13, noon-2pm

Digital and Collaborative Research Space, Maanjiwe nendamowinan 3230, University of Toronto Mississauga

The third Reading the River session will consider water security and the destruction of oceanic and watershed environments, as well as perspectives on disaster management and ways of building more resilient and sustainable systems. This session will feature a screening of Polina Teif’s short film Eulogy for the Dead Sea and Zoe Hopkins’ 360-degree video Impossible to Contain, as well as a conversation between Teif and Steve G. Hoffman on large-scale disasters and environmental responsibility. This will be followed by a walk along Credit River, where Hoffman will read from his text “Broadening the Imaginary in Disaster Management” from Issue 05: ACCOUNTING of our SDUK broadsheet series.

Hopkins’ 360-degree video Impossible to Contain will also be available for individual viewing with a VR headset from September 9-13 in the Digital and Collaborative Research Space, Maanjiwe nendamowinan, Room 3230, in advance of the screening on September 13.

Participants are advised to dress appropriately for outdoor, physical activity. This event will run rain-or-shine. The path along the river in unpaved, with some uneven terrain and slight inclines.

Proudly sponsored by U of T affinity partners:

Discover the benefits of affinity products!

Bio

Steve G. Hoffman is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto Mississauga, where he teaches classes on classical sociological theory, the sociology of disaster, power and cultural politics, and science and technology studies. Hoffman’s research focuses on the cultural politics of knowledge production, with a particular interest in the “ontic work” that goes into the production and popular use of simulation techniques and technologies. Although born and raised in Southern California, after spending most of his adult life in Chicago, Buffalo, and now Toronto, he sees the Great Lakes Region of North America as hometurf.

Zoe Hopkins was born in Bella Bella, a small and remote fishing village on the coast of BC, in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. She is Heiltsuk and Mohawk and is a fluent Mohawk language speaker. She is a mother and passionate about family. The themes of home, family and language run through her body of work. Impossible to Contain is released by CBC’s Short Docs program.

Polina Teif is a Belarus born multi-disciplinary artist raised in Israel and based in Toronto. She received her BFA from the University of Toronto with emphasis on Visual Studies and Semiotics, and completed an MFA in Film Production at York University. Specializing in auteur-driven documentary film, her work largely stems from observational and experimental video practice woven in with sociopolitical and environmental undercurrents. Polina is the director of the upcoming feature documentary, Eulogy for the Dead Sea.