A Kent conference exploring the relationship of time to law and regulation will be making innovative use of Lego to help participants visualise key concepts.
The Lego will feature in a plenary session entitled ‘Visualising Law and Time’ during the final international conference of Kent Law School’s Regulating Time network to be held on the University’s Canterbury campus from Thursday 8 to Saturday 10 September. The three-year network, funded by the UK’s Arts & Humanities Research Council, comprises an interdisciplinary group of scholars interested in the relationship between law and dominant concepts of time. It is co-ordinated by Kent Law School Reader in Law Dr Emily Grabham and Dr Sian Beynon-Jones, a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of York.
Kent Law School Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris, who will lead the innovative plenary session with Lego, said: ‘It is commonly reported that we remember just 10 percent of what we hear and 20 percent of what we read, but 80 percent of what we see and do; and that over 80 percent of the information we absorb is visual.
‘We intend to use Lego to press ourselves to use that 80 percent.
‘Let’s say I am facing a problem in my current research/administration/teaching project, and I want to get the advice of my colleagues. I can build a model for my colleagues of where my project is now, explaining what each piece represents and how it relates to the other pieces. The building process, including the selection of the pieces and where to put them, will force me to think very precisely about my project, but in terms that are still accessible to others. I learn new things about how my project fits together, and I offer a shared point of reference or vocabulary to my colleagues. After some discussion I might be in a position build another model that is closer to where I want my project to be. I may or may not actually get there. But we will all have used more of that 80 percent.’
Dr Grabham said: ‘Amanda’s methods have been extremely helpful for me when thinking about how to conceptualise the relationship between law, regulation and time. We’re very excited about her plenary because it will be both conceptually rich and hands-on. It will launch the conference in a really engaged way; the Lego will help challenge the way participants might think about law and time and enable them to try out new ideas.’
The conference, The New Legal Temporalities: Discipline and Resistance across Domains of Time, will explore time’s fraught relationship with law, governance and ordering: the use of time in projects of discipline, the significance of time to resistance, and the creation of new temporal horizons. It will feature a Keynote address by Professor Carol Greenhouse (Princeton) along with plenary sessions delivered by Dr Michelle Bastian from Edinburgh College of Art, Sarah Keenan from Birkbeck College, Justin Richland from the University of Chicago and Writer in residence Annabel Lyon (prize-winning author of historical novels The Sweet Girl and The Golden Mean).
Over the last three years, the Regulating Time network has hosted a series of academic workshops and public engagement events. Further details are available on the Regulating Time website, via the Regulating Time blog, or on twitter @RegulatingTime.