Seminar with Associate Professor Gareth Edwards

In this presentation Gareth will focus on exploring liminal spaces within which we usually concentrate on the person transiting through the space, the protagonist or liminar. Liminal spaces however have other characters inset within them that play important roles in negotiating through the space and hence learning from these experiences. The presentation therefore will identify these characters and explore in more detail how they can help and hinder leadership learning, development and education. One such character is the Trickster, a complex and pervading myth character found in a number of indigenous cultures. 

By paying attention to the trickster, attention can be drawn to the romanticisation of leadership development and its facilitation and offers ways to problematize leadership education by uncovering its shadow-side. Gareth will conclude by highlighting other residents of liminal spaces that might also be important in problematising leadership learning facilitation, such as sun-gods and monsters.
 

Gareth Edwards is Associate Professor of Leadership Development at Bristol Business School, the University of the West of England, UK. His current interests are in the application of ideas on aesthetics and leadership, community and dispersed theories of leadership. He also relates these issues to leadership learning and development.
 

He has published work in the journals Human Relations, Leadership, Management Learning, the International Journal of Management Reviews, Leadership and Organisation Development Journal and Advances in Developing Human Resources. He has also guest edited special issues in Management Learning and Advances in Developing Human Resources. Gareth is also on the editorial board of four journals, Leadership, Leadership and Organisation Development Journal, Advances in Developing Human Resources and the International Journal of Public Sector Services. Before entering academia Gareth spent twelve years working for a leadership and executive development company