Going Under [video]

‘Going Under’ Dominant Narratives and Faulty Norms

This is a slightly edited version of a presentation we offered on October 2, 2020 at the Body-Mind Centering® Association 2020 Online Somatic Symposium.

Inspired by the BMC® principle of ‘going under’ as well as queer theory, the disability rights movement, decolonization, and the history of scientific paradigm shifts, this presentation will turn a critical lens to the study of anatomy and physiology.

Our starting point will be cells: how might appreciating the wild diversity of cellular manifestations disrupt the artificial categories of a body-system approach to anatomy and free us from the arbitrary reference point of a standard cell?

We want to argue for the relevance and generativity of going under in the practice of teaching and learning, which can be an ongoing, radical exercise in questioning and dismantling dominant narratives, allowing alternate stories and new potentials to emerge.