RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab

RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab...

…is a workshop for the radical imagination, social justice and decolonization at Lakehead University, located physically in Anishinaabe territories on the Northern shore of gichi-gami (“Lake Superior”) and active online and around the world.

Operating at the intersection of art, activism and scholarly inquiry RiVAL fosters a wide range of activities.

RiVAL is directed by Dr. Max Haiven (Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination).

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Current Initiatives

What is the Anti-Fascist Game?

A day-long symposium on July 11 in London (UK)

Sense & Solidarity

A RiVAL-supported platform for social movement education, inclduing online and IRL workshops and our podcast What Do We Want? about the things that bring movements together... and drive them apart.

Worker as Futurist

A platform and podcast for understanding the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and others who are fighting for a different future. We recently published the collection The World After Amazon: Stories from Amazon Workers

Events

Global Events

Past
The Truth? In this Economy?
10 April 2025 at UCL's Institute for Advanced Studies
"Working with and against race" (Magma Editions 5)
29 June 2023, 19h - in Berlin
Entangled Legacies of Empire: Race, Finance and Inequality (online launch event)
Join the editors and authors of Entangled Legacies: Race, Finance and Inequality on June 20 for an online...
Reading group: David Graeber's "Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia" (Feb 2023)
Three discussion sessions in Berlin-Friedrichshain on Fridays (Feb 10, 17 and 24) from 17h30-19h00
Society for the promotion of radical analogue games
First Zoom meeting 9 Jan 2023, also on Discord

Thunder Bay Events

No posts found!

Past
Poster, zine and booklet making workshop
Saturday, 19 November 2022, 1-4pm - Thunder Bay
Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire book event at Lakehead
Friday, October 28, 1pm (Thunder Bay)
Clue-Anon: A board game about why conspiracy theories are fun... and dangerous (presentation and playtest)
Thursday, October 29, 5:30pm - Red Lion pub, Thunder Bay
Let us learn then act: Daily public reading of the Truth and Reconciliation Report - for everyone
Every day at noon, June 25 to July 1
Imagining community safety beyond colonial policing workshop
June 30, 6:30-9pm. Please register.
Palestinian human rights and the attacks on gaza
Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 7pm Eastern
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, reading and conversation
Tuesday, November 24, 2020 - 7pm Eastern
Debriefing the murder of Barbara Kentner and planning action against racism
November 5, 2020 - 7pm Eastern
Indigenous and Black responses to racism and police violence in Thunder Bay
Wednesday, September 9, 2020, 5:30pm Eastern
Decolonization reading group (for everyone) - Fall 2020
Tuesdays at 7pm EST from September 15 to December, 2020
More past events

Projects

Ongoing

VAGABONDS

A series of radical pamphlets to fan the flames of discontent. Published in collaboration with Pluto Press.

Games Lab

A platform for exploring and making radical games.

Summer Institute

Annual thematic gatherings at the intersection of art, activism and scholarly inquiry.
2022 edition
2021 edition
2019 edition

Past projects

The Order of Unmanageable Risks

A podcast and research project about capitalism and its anxieties (2020).

The Bank, The Mine, The Colony, The Crime

A collaborative walking tour of schoalrs, artists and activists to make sense of finance, race and settler colonialism in Toronto's financial district (2019).

Counterspeculations

A collaborative walking tour of scholars, artists and activists to make sense of finance and the imagination in the City of London (2018).

Digital/Debt/Empire and Zero Credits

A conference (2018), online essay collection (2019) and issue of TOPIA (2022) on finance, technology and globalization.

Project Accelerator

An occasional series of microgrants and coaching to inspire and support impossible projects for the radical imagination at the intersection of art, activism and research.

ReMatriation

A partnership with the Thunder Bay Public Library exploring Indigenous resurgence and the question of land.

The Strange Bedfellowship

A series of collaborations to instigate and investigate the radical power of dreaming in common.​

Conspiracy Games and Countergames

A podcast, game workshop and research project about conspiratorial thinking and dangerous play under late capitalism,​

Finance Capital and the Ghosts of Empire

Two conferences (2017 and 2019), an online collection (2019), a special issue of the Journal of Cultural Economy (2022) and an edited collection (2022) on colonialism, race and global debts.

Worker as Futurist

Workshops with Amazon workers about the future they ought to have a hand in building, resulting in a podcast, edited book and more.

People

Dr. Max Haiven

Director

Max Haiven is Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination and director of the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL) at Lakehead University.

Cassie Thornton

Co-director, 2017-2023

Stella Lawson

Research Assistant 2022-2023

Sam Cousins

Research Assistant 2022-2023

Past

Ben Evan James (production assistant)

Tina Munroe (graduate research fellow)

Dr. Ezra Winton (visiting scholar)

Dr. Tobias C. VanVeen (visiting scholar)

Matthew Benoit (graduate research fellow)

Nehikhare Patrick Igbinijesu (graduate assistant)

Liz Ward (graduate assistant)

Sarah Whorpole (graduate assistant)

Sharmin Ahmed (research intern)

Diana Nana Somuah Adu-Gyimah (graduate assistant)

Lindsay Benner (graduate assistant)

Barbara Benwell (graduate assistant)

Rochelle LaMarche (graduate assistant)

Daniella Luiz Martin (Mitacs Globallink research intern)

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Lab address

Room 2002, PACI Building
Lakehead University
401 Red River Road
Thunder Bay, Ontario

Mailing address

RiVAL, c/o Dr. Max Haiven
Lakehead University
955 Oliver Road
Thunder  Bay, Ontaio
Canada, P7B 5E1