Project In/Visibility
Project In/Visibility challenges the status quo by bringing narrative-shifting stories from the grassroots to classrooms and workplaces in the conservation sector. It is a conduit between academia and NGOs, channeling the diverse and plural voices at the forefront of social and ecological justice.
We live in a world where power remains firmly entrenched in Eurocentric knowledge, and the university classroom is where this knowledge is consolidated. The erasure of different and plural voices from the university curricula presents a challenge for the future of conservation.
Project In/Visibility uses the power of storytelling to build a just and equitable future for the planet. Rather than being a ‘voice for the voiceless’, the platform ‘passes the mic’ to the unheard. It crowdsources, documents and disseminates voices from the forefront of social and ecological justice, in the locations most impacted by social and environmental challenges. The rising voices aim to collectively shift the dominant narratives in conservation discourse, within academia and NGOs, and eventually in the communities and lands most impacted by these challenges.
In practice, Project In/Visibility is an interactive and immersive multilingual digital platform, conceived, designed and managed collaboratively by Project Myopia (PM) and Global Diversity Foundation, and available online (here) as of 2023. It builds upon Project Myopia’s mission to diversify university curricula through crowdsourcing material from students, extending it to our Global Environments Network community of 650 environmental changemakers. Project In/Visibility’s content includes innovative solutions and best practices that communities at the frontline have used for millennia to maintain biodiversity and ensure sustainable relationships with the ecosystems they steward. The platform is shared for use through GDF’s close partnerships with leading academic institutions and its community of over 650 environmental changemakers in 90 countries. The toolbox seeks to mainstream alternative narratives breakdown silos in academia, leading to richer and more nuanced understandings and conservation practice, rooted in local realities rather than Western imaginations.
About our partner:
Project Myopia diversifies university curricula through crowdsourcing material directly from students, revolutionising the way that curricula are designed. Students want to see more work from the global majority that increases diversity – more works created by women, LGBTQ, non-binary people, disabled people and people around the world. Over the past five years, Project Myopia has overseen an impact in pedagogical practices at the universities they work with, improving aspects from student welfare, to participatory methods of decolonising the curriculum, from the grassroots up.
Project In/Visibility is a winning idea, one of nine other innovative ideas from around the world, in the Luc Hoffmann Institute’s Future of Conservation Innovation Challenge. The innovative ideas focus on locally led and driven conservation efforts, redesigning conservation approaches and reimagining the conservation space to create a just, equitable and regenerative future. Our team is on an exciting co-learning and incubation programme organised by the Luc Hoffmann Institute, Impact Hub and IUCN CEESP.
