Dr. Lois Holzman, Speaker
Over the last few years, I have been traveling around the country speaking with a broad array of audiences – which I love! I’m invited to speak on a variety of topics. I introduce a “psychology of becoming” and the important contributions made by developmentalist Lev Vygotsky to advancing a playful, performatory approach to lifelong development. I share the inspiring work of hundreds of brilliant students and colleagues at the East Side Institute, the All Stars Project and the global Performing the World community who are shaping a new form of social activism — an activism grounded in the capacity to perform and to create environments for personal, community and social transformation.
Take a look at my featured presentation at The Art of Education’s National Conference.
I’d love to speak at your college, university, community group, conference or organization, so if you’re interested, please contact Mary Fridley at mfridley@eastsideinstitute.org.
My TED Talk, “Play Helps Us Grow at Any Age,” discusses the developmental power of play and performance. Please take a look, and also check-out the schedule of my upcoming speaking events. Invite me to come talk to your students and colleagues about “non-knowing growing.”
Keynote Presentation Topics
- A Psychology of Becoming
- Non-Knowing Growing
- Honor Your Playfulness: How Play Helps Us Grow at Any Age
- Is Psychology Missing the Play Revolution?
- Who Is Lev Vygotsky and How Does He Challenge Our Assumptions About Human Development?
- Busting the Myth of Psychology
- The Diagnostic Debate: Voices from the Street
- Fact or Fiction? A Postmodern Look at a World without “Truth”
- Transforming Classrooms into Theatrical Stages
- Performing the World: The performance turn in social activism
- Creating Communities of Hope
- What’s Developing in a World in Crisis?
- Making a Conceptual Revolution
- Why Knowing Keeps Us Dumb
Speaking, Course & Workshop Schedule
2020
August
August 24-29 Keynote, International Society for Cultural-historical Action Research (ISCAR), Natal, Brazil
June
June 13 Graduation, 2019/20 International Class, East Side Institute, NYC
June 4-13 Third NYC residency, 2019/20 East Side Institute International Class
February
February 24 “Social Therapeutics and the End of Knowing,” 12-week online course, presented by the East Side Institute
February 17-22 Second NYC residency, 2019/20 East Side Institute International Class
February 16 & 23 “Understanding Labels: A Guided Video Conversation,” presented by the East Side Institute
January
January 12 “First, Do No Harm! Practicing Social Therapeutics in Educational and Clinical Settings,” a webinar presented by the East Side Institute with Fabiola Desmont, Sarah Kornhauser and Rachel Mickenberg.
2019
December
December 8 Politics 4 the People, online National Book Club discusses, Holzman’s “The Overweight Brain: How Our Obsession with Knowing Keeps Us from Getting Smart Enough to Make a Better World”
November
November 24 “Constructing Social Therapeutics, Over and Over and Over Again,” East Side Institute’s fall community meeting and fundraiser, NYC
November 20 “Forget What You Know About Dementia!” a webinar with Richard Coaten, Mary Fridley, Susanna Howard and Peter Whitehouse
November 11 “Labels, Learning and Love,” Lois talks to activist Irshad Manji, author of “Don’t Label Me,” inaugural event, Fred Newman Lecture Series, NYC
Nov 10 “Play, Performance and Improvisation: Tools to Maximize Creative and Developmental Pedagogy” at National Collegiate Honors Council 2019 Annual Conference, New Orleans
October
October 3-6 Keynote presentation, “Play, Perform, Learn, Grow,” international conference, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece
September
September 19 Special lecture, Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Vygotskian Practice and Performance,“It All Comes Down to How We Do What We Do,” Lloyd International Honors College, UNC-Greensboro
June
June 23 “Exploring the End of Knowing,” a webinar with School in the Cloud founder, Sugata Mitra
June 15 Graduation of the International Class 2018/19 (a 10-Month Residency & Online Program), East Side Institute, NYC
May
May 18 “Performance (Activism) and Therapy” at Friends of KCC, London
May 15-17 “Creating Communities of Hope as an Improvisation” at Global Improvisation Initiative, Middlesex University, London
May 3–June 3 “The Magic of Language: An Online Revolutionary Conversation” led by Lois Holzman
March
March 24 Free Webinar on “The Overweight Brain” with Holzman, Bullock, Cortes, Sokolow
March 23 “Innovative Tools for Creative Leadership, Social Entrepreneurship and Performance Activism”, East Side Institute, NYC
February
Feb 18 Residency—The International Class, East Side Institute, NYC
Feb 21 – May 26 “Social Therapeutics: A Search for Method for Our Times” (online course)
2018
November
(with Cathy Salit) Let’s Perform Our Lives (engaging the dialectics of development) and Upside Down Conversations (and other ways to challenge truth and create possibilities in business)
The 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee & Conference—25 Years of Social Construction Practice Around the World, Cancun Mexico
October
Performance and Play for Activism and Development
Southwestern University, Georgetown TX
September
Performing the World 2018: Let’s Develop! NYC
Residency—The International Class, East Side Institute, NYC
Let’s Perform a New Campus Life 2018 Distinguished Speaker
Georgia State University, College of Education and Human Development, Atlanta GA
How Play and Performance Builds Communities and Creates a Better World
University of West Georgia, Carrollton GA
June
Residency—The International Class, East Side Institute, NYC
May
Performing Research Workshop, Executive Leadership Doctoral Program
Graduate School of Education and Human Development, George Washington University, Ashburn VA
April
Research-Activism as Tool-and-Result Invited Symposium Being/Becoming an Activist Scholar: Lessons from Cultural Historical Activity Theory, American Educational Research Association, NYC
What Does It Take to be Culturally Relevant?, Keynote Address, Applied Linguistic Winter Conference/NYSTESOL, NYC
March
Mad in America: Where Can We Go From Here? Online course with Robert Whitaker
Socio-cultural research doctoral student seminar, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
The Revolution Must Be Performed, Fifth International Congress:Consciencia: Ciencia y Espiritualidad, Puebla Mexico
February
Conference Presentation—How Improvisation Can Make You a Better Teacher and Your Students Better Learners, Art Ed Now Conference (online)
Residency—The International Class, East Side Institute, NYC