Racialised Bodies and Anxiety

Dr Akile Ahmet started us off with an insightful and powerful talk on a piece of research she conducted on Racism in the Academy. Using a photo-voice methodology she asked participants to explore the physical space of the university to visualise marginalisation and exclusion.

Drawing on concepts such as Puwar’s ‘bodies out of place’ and the works of Stuart Hall, Shirley Anne Tate, and Yuval-Davis the research develops effective maps through visual and discursive analysis. Dr Ahmet discussed the importance, and current lack, of care in representation in higher education and her work searches for ways that such spaces can be transformed beyond a surface level to facilitate belonging.

Dr Ahmet’s work spurred a vibrant discussion around elevating student voices as part of research and the types of consideration that such work entails. We also discussed the merits of the photo-voice method which yields imagery that is sometimes more resistant to contestation. Dr Ahmet was also able to share insights with us as to the lasting effects of this piece of work in the forming of student networks and collectivities.

Dr Deborah N Brewis shared a presentation of developing work on Whitely Vocalities. This work focuses on ‘naming’ as a strategy for the reveal for revealing the operations of power that constitute and reiterate racism. Dr Brewis uses a critical-creative methodology to examine and represent examples of interactions in her own scholarly field and communities. Using poetic forms of writing and presenting, the research distils and gives language to dynamics of power giving others language with which to make concrete and recognisable what is often felt as subtle and fleeting moments of invalidation and marginalisation.

The presentation resonated with the room particularly upon reading the poetically-described vocalities, which evoked interactions so familiar to some of us. The presentation also touched upon the politics of naming as a form of claiming work as one’s own as an individual, where whole communities and histories of people may have contributed and could be credited.

Discussions around Dr Brewis’ work have continued beyond the workshop to explore the potential of critical-creative work in advancing equalities, and around the issue that ‘more data’ is so often demanded of workaround racism.

Campaigner Tamanna Miah shared a short talk about her experiences of Islamophobia and the mental health implications of racism. She shared some of her charity work with participants and spoke on the need to engage in generational work to both intervene and prevent experiences of racial trauma.

Samir Jeraj joined us as our final guest to discuss racism within the charity sector and journalism. This talk raised issues of how people of colour are often responsibilised for educating about racism, the physical toll it entails, of demoralisation among those doing equalities work, and lack of sufficient access to mental health care.

Dr Anke Strauss whose work explores affect through Stewart’s notion of ‘atmospheres’ led an embodied workshop. Dr Strauss described how we ‘unlearn to listen’ to one another and particularly through our bodies, becoming less adept at recognising subtle movements and expressions. We engaged in a walking exercise in pairs in which we shared stories, hopes, and challenges in order to practice really attuning to one another. We were also led through some physical-spatial exercises and brought the session to a close-by mapping out striking concepts we had explored.