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MEDIA RELEASE: New courses from Dark Times Academy to focus on climate action, practical activism, and creating vision
AUCKLAND, 15 August 2025 – Dark Times Academy’s final lineup of courses for 2025, launching in mid-September, will focus on taking action on climate, learning about practical activism, and creating visions for the future. Dark Times Academy co-founder Mandy Henk says participants will be inspired by and learn from a stellar list of globally renowned…
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Direct Action! Education for Resistance and Rebellion
Direct action gets the job done! From climate to immigration, activists have been freeing us all through vigorous challenges to power. This class will bring together activists and experts from across a range of issues to talk about their experiences planning and carrying out a range of actions, from climate action in Aotearoa to nonviolent…
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Vision: Imagining the Future
How can we let go of the world as it is to bring about the world we want? To build the future of our dreams, we must first imagine it. But how can we do the work of letting go of what is to explore what might be? And how can we work together to…
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Making Hope: Climate Action for Dark Times
More than just the climate is changing in the world today. Governments are falling one by one to fascism and far-right political parties. With them comes an institutionalisation of doubt, denial, and a turn away from collective solutions to our shared problems. This class will explore the impacts of that transition and what we can…
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How to fight Trump’s cyber dystopia with community, self-determination, care and truth
A presentation to the Asia Pacific Media Network by Mandy Henk, co-founder and director of Dark Times Academy. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ When the US Embassy knocked on my door in late 2024, I was both pleased and more than a little suspicious. I’d worked with them before, but the organisation where I did…
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MEDIA RELEASE: New online course from Dark Times Academy set to take on the Tech Bros with an all-star guest speaker line-up
Other new courses to address Christian Nationalism and ‘Decomputing’ AUCKLAND, 16 April 2025 – Community education provider Dark Times Academy has announced some bold new courses for its second term lineup for 2025, with topics covering the threat of Christian Nationalism, ‘decomputing’, and a special course about resisting the Silicon Valley ‘tech bros’ and oligarchs,…
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Instructor spotlight: Phill Simpson
Your class is titled A Pedagogy of Possibility – critical reading and writing. What do you think is the most important thing for people to know about this course? Essentially, the most important thing for people to know is that the course is designed to expand their understanding of both the process and purpose of…
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Innovation without Disruption–Visiting Risingholme and the Hagley Adult Literacy Centre
Last week has been an absolute whirlwind for us at Dark Times Academy. In addition to our amazing classes, we also were invited to deliver a counter disinformation workshop for the adult and community educators down in Christchurch. During our visit we were hosted by the lovely folks at Risingholme and we delivered our workshop at the Hagley…
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Instructor Spotlight: Piers Locke
Your class is titled Future Thriving: Meeting the Challenge of Post-Growth Transition. What do you think is the most important thing for people to know about Future Thriving? The course is about the planetary limits organised human life is breaching, the direct and indirect risks and consequences they are producing, and the attempt to transition toward…
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What I’ve Been Learning – Painting
I spent the weekend with a paintbrush in my hand, which is my favourite way to spend a weekend these days. About 3 years ago I decided to learn how to paint. I had been “art curious” for a while, but one weekend I decided to go ahead and just learn how to do it.…
