Intersectionality: Disability, Gender, Faith & Race.
TASK 1 – Review of Session
Feedback https://artslondon.padlet.org/sosei/wednesday-session-1-feedback-g0iq2joaayuwcx2g
There’s a reason these “quieter voices” exist in the group. I have had many conversations with other students and a lot of us feel a disparity between conversations online, and in person. That a lot can be lost online, and this increases the anxiety or fear of talking in online spaces, especially in the context of quite sensitive topics. I wonder if what feels like a push for the “quiet ones” to engage verbally is the best way to engineer a space for discussion, or if it creates more anxiety and tension. – Agree with the sentiment shared here.
TASK 2 – Key Terms.
In your own words please define as many of the following terms in up to 30 minutes. Please do not use a search engine or dictionary to explore these words, we really want you to reflect on what you already know, which words are easy and which words are challenging to define.
Notes & Reflections
Which key terms did you find challenging and why? Topics discussed Intersectionality – Diaspora – Politically BlackDiaspora can be helpful how a person can intersect with a group, a classroom can be a community. Politically Black – 70/80s people in northern Ireland who felt oppressed identified as being Politically Black. History of White People by Nell Painter really helped me to understand whiteness. White Fragility almost feels reductive in that it gives a free pass in a way to white people not to make changes and address racial injustice because you’re too “fragile”. Positionality versus identity.
Who coined the term intersectionality? Kimberle Crenshaw
Link to the original 1989 paper: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics
Walter Mignolo – ideas on complexity journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0263276409349275 Decolonial Thinking – modern ideals, such as progress and development; modern institutions, such as the nation-State; and modern conceptions of knowledge and subjectivity, such as the liberal arts and sciences and the sovereign self, have come into being with colonialism as a background and an implication
Ideas on intersectionality and working definition – analogy of standing at a traffic intersection and having to deal with multiple streams of traffic. ntersectionality like a quantum system. Identity elements (race, gender, class, etc.) are like particles in an atom. They coexist and interact to shape the whole, much like quantum superposition where a system is in multiple states at once. olour mixing as it related to intersectionality – adding colours (identities/experiences) together to get something qualitatively different. Healing, spirituality and intersectionality kvadratinterwoven.com/emma-kunz-art-in-the-spiritual-realm
Positionality refers to the social and political context that creates your identity, such as in terms of race race, class, gender, sexuality and ability status [and language background].It includes how we identify and views our perspective and possible biases of society as well as how others see us. (CohenMiller and Brown, 2022 p.244)
TASK 3 – Case study Race/ Gender
Inclusive Practice: Alchemy – Transformation in Social Justice Teaching.https://shadesofnoir.org.uk/journals/inclusive-practice/ – pp 147-150
What did you take from the case study?
What appeared as a person attempting to atone and learn from a racial or racist teaching exercise / lesson.
Can you highlight any parallels between the case study and the first session on this unit or in your engagements with students and or peers?
Not with the first session, personally I found that to be a misjudged and patronising exercise. Guessing Akala’s religion, attitudes etc based on an image was at best for me silly. However, others had a different reaction. The students who have experienced racism and then were asked to take part in the racist exercise spoke out and I felt it was my place to give them their space to do so, listen and learn.
How many key terms can you name and identify as being present within this case study?
Institutional Racism – Politically Black – White Fragility – Privilege – Racism
What would you have done in this situation? You choose which role
I hope I would have spoken out, but I cannot know until placed in that position.
TASK 4 – Not All Disabilities Are Visible
Being logical is having the ability to understand ourselves so well that we know the things we won’t do, and won’t feel guilty about not doing them. Hear from The Horizontals about what invisible disabilities can teach us all about how we work and live together. Horizontal is an ongoing piece of artistic research lead by artist Suriya Aisha. Horizontal investigates the relationship between invisible disabilities, capitalism and all the awkward bits in between. The project was inspired by Suriya’s own experience of living with rare brain condition Chiari Malformation Type 1. THE HORIZONTALS are a group of women and non-binary people who live with invisible health conditions and seek to raise awareness through open conversations, artistic experiments and most importantly sharing pots of hummus.
Notes & Reflections
What do you take from this video?
The effects of those suffering from invisible disability. preconceptions of laziness among my student body. er tone addressing her non apologetic behaviour stems from being made to feel small/marginalised because of her invisible condition
How has this impacted your understanding of disability and the relationship with the first blog/vlog?
That at times it can be invisible and those suffer discrimination in addition to the effects caused by their physical difficulties.
How has or could this resource be used in your context personally or professionally?
To not pre judge my students and to include / promote elements / design that improve accessibility.
Crip theory is a blurring or merging of queer theory and critical disability studies. Crip theory explores how the social pressures and norms around ability intersect with the social pressures and norms around gender/sexuality. crip time in relation to assessment. taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003293101-5/crip-assessment-critical-disability-studies-theories-advance-assessment-inclusion-neera-… UAL’s Disability Inclusion Toolkit (start with Guidance for Inclusive Teaching and Learning!) – https://canvas.arts.ac.uk/sites/explore/SitePage/45680/disability-inclusion-toolkit Social Model of Disability: Thirty Years On, Mike Oliver: https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2013.818773 – what are the disabling barriers that students (and staff) encounter? Disability Dongle: A well intended elegant, yet useless solution to a problem we never knew we had (Liz Jackson). https://blog.castac.org/2022/04/disability-dongle/
TASK 5 – Intersectional Identities.
Article: Katayoun pronoun article pp 20-22 https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/queer_bodies_online/20?ff
Book: Faith, Race – Mirza – pp70-77 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GdSqaz6NBMIC&pg=PA70&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false
Notes & Reflections
What do you take from the 2 pieces?
Gender is complicated, respect is simple. Not a preference or choice, ask which pronouns they use. Even within support progressive structures / movements racism or marginalisation can occur. Faith evolving, reflects social change. Religion is overlooked as we try to separate our private life from institutions. Introduction yourself and pronouns. Reduce assessment stress, Assessment Patterns: a review of the possible consequences (moving away from high stakes, end-of-process assessment): blogs.kcl.ac.uk/aflkings/files/2019/08/ESCAPE-AssessmentPatterns-ProgrammeView.pdf
How has this shaped your understanding of the term intersectionality, or not?
I think so, multiple social or personal identities can be marginalise or removed in conventional even progressive systems, introduced me to the concept of wicked problems, which was fascinating in terms of understanding my place in positive change. Horst Rittel’s strategies on addressing ‘wicked problems’ can give some advice on how to feel less overwhelmed or paralysed when faced by a problem that seems too complex to solve individually. Horst Rittel –sympoetic.net/Managing_Complexity/complexity_files/1973%20Rittel%20and%20Webber%20Wicked%20Problems.pdf Commoning is primary to human life: the commons are shared spaces of social coexistence
Intersectionality is the interconnected nature of social categorizations, such as race and class and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, creating overlapping and independent systems of discrimination or disadvantages’ (CohenMiller and Boivin, p.224)
How does this task inform your practises, learning and ways in which you assess or make judgements?
To ensure, as much as possible all identities are listened to and are represented, no singular identity owns a progressive movement.
While white feminists emphasise the problems of patriarchy or capitalism black women stress a triple oppression. All black people are subordinated by racial oppression, women are subordinated by sexual domination, black women are subordinated by both as well as class
Ethnicity: the fourth burden of black women – political action Olivia Foster-CarterView all authors and affiliations
Volume 7, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018387007020
Intersectionality – Race & Gender – Victoria Odeniyi study
2008 maths engineering students – disaproporgieniate inclusion of black boys. Black asian students called out for using phone. Week later female called out but not excluded from lecture hall for using phone relates to article: theguardian.com/education/2021/mar/24/exclusion-rates-black-caribbean-pupils-england
TASK 6 – Key Data.
‘Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are disproportionately likely to be excluded from school; they account for almost two-thirds of all exclusions.’ (Good Schools Guide, 2021) https://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/special-educational-needs/your-rights/school-exclusions
● Review Appendix 6 of HMIP Annual Report 2018-19 – https://drive.google.com/file/d/13tWueHEGiXMCrvMYhpbu3Dsxpzac2D90/view
● Make notes of 3 – 5 observations that you feel are significant and consider how these impact your professional practice.
● You may wish to also refer to relevant data within your blogging tasks for the future
Notes & Reflections
Are you 25 years of age or younger?
25% men 14% women
Are you from a minority ethnic group?
31% men 15% women
Are you Muslim?
17% men 4% women
Do you have any mental health problems?
43% men 67% women
Do you consider yourself to have a disability?
34% men 40% women
Are you a foreign national?
10% men 5% women
Is your gender female or non-binary?
No stat given
Are you homosexual, bisexual or other sexual orientation?
4% men 27% women
Do you identify as transgender or transsexual?
2%men 1% women
Do you have a religion?
70% men 69% women
Are your religious beliefs respected here?
68% men 80% women
Is it very / quite easy to see:
Mental health workers?
27% men 45% women
Do you have any mental health problems?
43% men 67% women
For those who have a disability:
Have you been helped with your mental health problems in this prison?
39% men 58% women
Do you think the overall quality of the health services here is very / quite good?
42% men 40% women
Do you consider yourself to have a disability?
34% 40%
Are you getting the support you need?
31% 35%
Have you been on an ACCT in this prison?
18% 41%
For those who have been on an ACCT:
Did you feel cared for by staff?
47% 55%
Is it very / quite easy for you to speak to a Listener if you need to?
40% 50%
I’m particularly interested in how the idea of intersectionality sits against or supports the concept of universal design.
DisCrit (Disability Critical Race Studies) – new publication includes a section on School-to-Prison Pipeline. https://libsearch.arts.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=1486680&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20discrit
disability social history project: disabilityhistory.org/books-articles
GENERAL NOTES
Equality And Diversity In Art & Design.
The Challenges:
● Increase in group sizes within the studio spaces
● Atelier method of one-to-one teaching no longer possible
● Lack of access to studio spaces for disabled students and use of equipment which is not adaptable to students’ needs
● Potential sites of conflict for students creating pieces of art relating to religion, sexuality and death
- Financial constraints for students from low income studying art and design subjects
● Low numbers of staff of colour employed to teach art and design although the number of students of colour studying is rising
● Disparities in degree attainment between home white students and students of colour in Art and design subjects
● Large number of students with disclosed disabilities (dyslexia)
arts.ac.uk/ual-decolonising-arts-institute/publications-and-podcasts/reimagining-conversations – section 6.3 – expansion and internalisation. It might give access to more students, but from a very elite/privileged pool