Encountering the cosmos; negotiating conflicting worlds through learning and engagement Main Article Content Zahra Hussain Laajverd Visiting School (LVS) Abstract Interventions by the state or development organizations in post-disaster landscapes or through infrastructural development have long been criticized for their incongruity in project design and implementation which tend to ignore the local cultural, political and social landscapes. This paper discusses an educational program called Laajverd Visiting School that attempts to question the simplistic and linear frameworks (often one-size-fits-all) adopted by intervention projects which usually disregard local context resulting in half-baked, ill-equipped projects. Inspired from Isabelle Stengers’ cosmopolitics, as means of constructing a common world, the Laajverd Visiting School program engages with multiple actors which are equally part of composing landscapes that we sought to explore. This paper is positioned to highlight the interconnections between teaching, learning and research (Harland, 2016). It unpacks experiential learning (Hooks, 1994; Shor, 1992; Wink, 2005) as means of attending to the more-than-human worlds. Specifically, it explores pedagogies of experiential learning; of being immersed in the field and remaining open to its terrains, hurdles, surprises and discomfort. It highlights methodologies employed in the field to allow learners/participants to explore multiple ways of approaching and understanding these landscapes; the threats and challenges they face, and how communities continue to live in constrained environments. Keywords: Landscapes, Disasters, Worlds, Cosmopolitics, Open inquiry, MappingHow to cite this article:Hussain, Z. 2020. Encountering the cosmos; negotiating conflicting worlds through learning and engagement. -Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South. 4(2): 180-196. https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v4i2.127.This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Article Details How to Cite HUSSAIN, Zahra. Encountering the cosmos; negotiating conflicting worlds through learning and engagement. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, [S.l.], v. 4, n. 2, p. 180-196, sep. 2020. ISSN 2523-1154. Available at: <https://sotl-south-journal.net/?journal=sotls&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=127>. Date accessed: 11 apr. 2021. doi: https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v4i2.127. ABNT APA BibTeX CBE EndNote - EndNote format (Macintosh & Windows) MLA ProCite - RIS format (Macintosh & Windows) RefWorks Reference Manager - RIS format (Windows only) Turabian Issue Vol 4 No 2 (2020): SOTL in the South Section Peer-reviewed articles This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. The copyright to this article is transferred to Sotls (including without limitation, the right to publish the work in whole or in part in any and all forms of media, now or hereafter known) effective if and when the article is accepted for publication thus granting Sotls all rights for the work so that both parties may be protected from the consequences of unauthorized use. The copyright transfer covers the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions, microform, electronic form (offline,online) or any other reproductions of similar nature. The authors warrant that their contribution is an original work not published elsewhere, that they have the full power to make this grant and that the article contains no matter unlawful or which invades the right to privacy or infringes any proprietary right. Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers It is absolutely essential that authors obtain permission to reproduce any published material (figures, schemes, tables or any extract of a text) which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyright holder (usually the Publisher, please refer to the imprint of the individual publications to identify the copyright holder). Permission is required for: 1. Your own works published by other Publishers and for which you did not retain copyright. 2. Substantial extracts from anyones’ works or a series of works. 3. Use of Tables, Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified. 4. Photographs for which you do not hold copyright. Permission is not required for: 1. Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please notice that in this case you must cite the source of the data in the form of either “Data from…” or “Adapted from…”. 2. Reasonably short quotes are considered fair use and therefore do not require permission. 3. Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks that are completely redrawn by the authors and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission. Obtaining Permission In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process, you should start obtaining permissions as early as possible. If in any doubt about the copyright, apply for permission. Sotls cannot publish material from other publications without permission. The copyright holder may give you instructions on the form of acknowledgement to be followed; otherwise follow the style: “Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year].’ at the end of the caption of the Table, Figure or Scheme. Authors should understand that consistent with Sotls’s policy of encouraging dissemination of information, each work published by Sotls appears with the Sotls copyright and the following notice: “Intellectual properties and scientific inventions published with Sotls are protected under International and National Copyright Laws and Treaties. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than Sotls must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.” However, it is at the discretion of SOTLS if the copyright notice should be included in the published manuscript. Article Sidebar PDF Published Sep 28, 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v4i2.127