This blog shares all of my blog group’s comments in one easy to find place. You can read George and Becky’s comments on my three blogs here:
Disability and Intersectionality
Becky’s post on disability and intersectionality is here.
I said:
I applaud you for managing to offer reflections on all three videos — very succinct and useful summaries, a challenge within the word count! I really like the tool you’ve created for yourself — what a smart way of keeping these things easily at the front of your mind. You’ve chosen really evocative words in the mnemonic that I think will really help with not just your own work, but also, if you consider ways of sharing this, other people’s. (Feels like a poster might be in order?! 😉
I also hugely appreciate you noting the government’s oncoming changes to the welfare system. I am in total agreement with you about the devastating effect this is going to have on countless thousands of people across the country. And of course, as we have been reflecting on over these last couple of weeks, those most at risk from these brutal cuts will be those who are disadvantaged by multiple intersecting elements of their identity. I share your concerns about how this will affect not just students, but also our fellow staff, and I thank you for highlighting it.
Becky responded:
I think the contemporary political agenda is something that is at the forefront of a lot of our minds at UAL and the impact that certain decisions have had on both our staff and students is a serious cause for concern. Talking to others who have lived, worked or studied abroad and hearing how their Governments’ support health care, housing, education in more people centred ways (Germany, Norway, The Netherlands for a start) proves how better examples exist and do work to enable people to function at their best. Sadly I see so both students and staff struggling with basic needs such as their living situation and health, that impacts greatly on their current experience and abilities. I hope changes are to come in the next year that will see our students, staff and more widely our population being able to feel like they can grow in a supportive environment, rather than the unstable situation we find ourselves in. Hopefully the vote today can be a step towards that change!
George’s blog post on disability and intersectionality is here.
I said:
I really love the framing you’ve chosen for this blog, around where eco-activism and disability intersect. I’ve read a bit about this previously, and it has opened my mind to reflect more on how our climate mitigation efforts must always be inclusive and reflective — and crucially, must listen when people tell us perceived solutions are not as simple or clear cut as they seem.
I appreciate how you have gone on to write about how this is situated within your educational practice — like you, I am constantly pushing my UXD students to reflect on who they are designing for. Just this week we were talking about ‘extremes and mainstreams’ — the mainstream users of a product or service may well be who students have in mind, but how do we define ‘extremes’? Those outliers who nonetheless have equal rights to access and usability, and who mustn’t be overlooked in attempts to streamline or simplify an offering. (This might span disability, but also a myriad of other unexpected use cases. A slight aside, but I have enjoyed learning more about ‘situational disability’ and how this can help expand our understanding as able bodied and/or neurotypical people — a brief summary of situational disability here: https://userway.org/blog/how-situational-disabilities-impact-us-all/)
Your reflections on persona pedagogy are extremely valuable, and a good thinking point for me as well. UXD as a discipline often makes use of tools like ‘personas’ and ‘user stories’, which are effectively variations of persona pedagogy. There are strengths and weaknesses to their use, and one often highlighted weakness is the danger of simplification, and as you state, “further problematising or re-performing stigmatisation”.
I believe these blogs are meant to be 500 words, and yours is around double this — just noting it here as I am not sure whether there are penalties for this — I for one certainly appreciated you taking the expanded space to go into more depth on this topic and share more thoughts and resources, as I do think it’s a struggle to do it justice in just 500 words! Thank you for all you have shared.
Becky’s blog post on Faith and Intersectionality is here.
I said:
Though I have had some faith related discussions with students, I do think it’s an aspect of people’s identities which is discussed by students much less often than some others, like gender, race, sexuality and class. I do wonder why this is, and whether the university setting has too much of a tendency to frame itself as a secular space. At some point in my teaching I disclosed casually that I am a Quaker, and this enabled one of my Muslim students to come and have an in-depth discussion with me about her faith and how it related to her project at the time. She said that she appreciated knowing that I also believed in a God. While not every tutor should be obligated to either disclose, or indeed have any kind of faith, I do wonder whether, for those of us that do, finding ways of being open about it in a relaxed way can widen that discussion and space for thought. I had also been reflecting on that quote by Jeet Singh about how we have a tendency to think about given communities with broad brushstrokes, and this was something I also reflected on in my blog — the importance of fostering a culture where we really do see each student as an individual, rather than just typecasting them based on faith or any other aspect of their identity. I liked hearing about your work at the secondary school — during the next academic year I am really keen to try and find a way of acknowledging and/or celebrating festivals and holidays from all different faith groups and nationalities, without feeling tokenistic, and I still haven’t quite figured out how I am going to do this!
Becky responded:
I think faith has a much bigger impact on the student experience and their connection with their work than is perhaps recognised by UAL – I know from experience that it is rarely mentioned in our department and this is something that I feel is important to address with my colleagues moving forward. I like your musing on ‘ways of being open about it in a relaxed way can widen that discussion and space for thought’ between staff and students that feel happy to share, and I also think that those who do not belong to a faith might value and be valued within these discussions. One of the things I have noticed in my current year 3 work is the inclusion of religious iconography (with no indication of faith being related to this) which can be problematic – most likely this is not intended by the individual but I wonder if opening up these spaces you mention could be a way of bringing more attention to the importance of understanding and respecting those who have different beliefs for everyone. It is admirable that you are finding ways to be more inclusive of religious celebrations next year and I agree that often it can feel tokenistic. As discussed in workshops 3 & 4 with the group, perhaps using subtlety with this such as providing the space around teaching (adjusting workshop timings, tutorial days etc) so that students are available to celebrate or practice their religion without having to ask for time off or missing out on learning could be a way to start.
George’s blog post on Faith and Intersectionality is here:
I said:
What a brilliant blog — so connected to your own specialist areas of research. You’ve managed to cover a lot of ground in the limited word count, and I feel I learned a lot! Your initial reflections on the fact that most faith groups connect with ecological precepts is a good reminder, and of the potential power that such groups carry to push for change. (I am a Quaker, and our ‘advices and queries’ state “We do not own the world, and its riches are not ours to dispose of at will.” — I reflect on this often!)
However, as you note, things do not always play out this way, for complex reasons (which it can take a whole documentary to even chip away at understanding). I’d be really interested to hear if there are any other examples like this amongst other faith groups (I am sure there are!), as the stories we more often tend to here are those of faith or race based solidarity when it comes to environmental fights, like those of the Dakota Access Pipeline, or this example of Quakers protesting a fossil fuel company in memory of one of the founding Quakers, John Woolman (https://bristolquakers.org.uk/quakers-from-bristol-protest-against-major-asset-company-investing-in-fossil-fuels/).
Becky’s blog post on Race is here:
I said:
Some good reflections here — well done for bringing yourself to read the comments on these videos, I can never bear to! But I think in this context it is interesting to see what other external parties are saying. As you say, there are global as well as national tides of opinion on these subjects which shape the discourse, and sadly negative voices often speak the loudest. As you say, it is deeply upsetting to see the lack of knowledge, understanding and empathy.
I didn’t have space to discuss everything I wanted to in my blog, so I am glad to see you addressing the topic of staff retention and satisfaction when it comes to minority groups. It would be good to see stats on that side of things as well as merely recruitment, as anecdotally I have heard of a variety of different experiences (positive and negative) — it would be good to see these more clearly quantified.
Your reflections on the visibility of racialised minority staff members are also interesting to read — the pressure said academics experience in their roles has been widely spoken about, the challenge now is reflecting on how it might be possible to change this.
There have been a few times where I have been confronted by students work which I am fully aware I do not fully understand for cultural reasons. My general response to this is to try and allow them to be my teacher — firstly by showing a genuine interest in their subject (which invariably IS interesting!) and then, while acknowledging my own lack of knowledge, making it very clear that I want to understand — both that I welcome further context from them, and that I will do my own research. By being proactive about getting informed I am better placed to judge their projects on their own merits, rather than on their chosen subject which I might or might not be culturally familiar with.
George’s blog post on race is here.
I said:
I really like the framing of this blog George, because I do think the notion of comfort (or lack of) is hugely relevant. We all dislike feeling uncomfortable, so questions must be asked about when discomfort is a relevant tool for transformative experiences vs when it is discomfort for discomfort’s sake, and may even serve to shut people down and make them avoid future discussions about a difficult subject. Arao’s writing on safe spaces vs brave spaces was hugely exciting to me (you will also have seen this of course), as I found the framing of bravery very useful and positive when confronting discomfort. Asking participants to be brave is more positive than telling them they might be uncomfortable.
In your field especially, I find the potential of decolonisation hugely exciting, as it opens doors to a whole world of media and thought that had previously been under-appreciated or even unseen by our western eyes. Particularly when it comes to eco-critical cinema, it is vital that we spread our gaze widely, as climate change is a global issue, and deserves to be confronted from a global perspective.