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).
Current projects
The Truth? In This Economy?
A half-day, unconventional symposium in London on April 10 on the broad topic of Financialization and Truth-bending, including but not limited to the rise of the fake, the fraudulent, the scam, the charlatan, the hoax, the (para)fiction, the weird, the perverse and the mythical.
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
Find more of our events on our Facebook page.
Global Events
The Truth? In this Economy?
10 April 2025 at UCL's Institute for Advanced Studies
Past
Thunder Bay Events
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Past
Projects
Ongoing
VAGABONDS
A series of radical pamphlets to fan the flames of discontent. Published in collaboration with Pluto Press.
Worker as Futurist
Workshops with Amazon workers about the future they ought to have a hand in building.
Summer Institute
Annual thematic gatherings at the intersection of art, activism and scholarly inquiry.
2022 edition
2021 edition
2019 edition
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.
Conspiracy Games and Countergames
A podcast, game workshop and research project about conspiratorial thinking and dangerous play under late capitalism,
The Strange Bedfellowship / Wages for Dreamwork
A series of collaborations to instigate and investigate the radical power of dreaming in common.
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.
People
Dr. Max Haiven
Co-director
Max Haiven is Canada Research Chair in the Radical Imagination and co-director of the ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL) at Lakehead University.
Stella Lawson
Research Assistant 2022-2023
Sam Cousins
Research Assistant 2022-2023
Ben Evans 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)
Contact
- info.rival [at] lakeheadu.ca
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