Just a few months ago, I walked from my humble abode in South London to the unknown. I embraced trajectories new to my routine cycle journey, mainly guided by London’s chaotic urban architecture but also by the avoidance of crowds and noisy encounters. To quote Chris Jenks: “ In the derive, the explorer of the city follows whatever cue, or indeed clue, that the street offers as an enticement to fascination”.
For the relief of my feet, I ended my journey at the Wellcome Collection, a marvellous gallery where art and medicine are idiosyncratically merged by exhibiting works of artists affected by physical and/or mental illnesses and by exploring the past, present and future of health.
I thoroughly submerged myself in one of the exhibitions called ‘Jason and the Adventure of 254’ conceived by the Yorkshire-based disabled artist Jason Wilsher-Mills. Surrounded by colourful and gigantic sculptures, dioramas, and paintings I was catapulted back into my childhood made of comics, toys and arcade games (Fig.1). The presence of the virus carried by toy soldiers disseminated around represented the illness of the artist who has been affected since the age of eleven chronic fatigue syndrome resulting in hospitalisation and left him paralyzed from the neck down for 5 years. During his time in the hospital, Jason learnt to paint with his mouth supported by his mum who became his hero, muse and the main figure of many artifices.
Fig. 1– Renga, G. 2025. Jason and the Adventure of 254
Inspired by Jason’s mum, I started cogitating about what I could do better to support students affected by disabilities, but at the same time how to create an environment that would naturally support and include all sorts of students without being aware of their disabilities whenever I teach them how to use creative software or by simply comprising their needs in the design of a poster or signage.
With the beginning of my new PgCert unit called ‘Inclusive Practice,’ I started familiarising myself with terms like ‘intersectionality’ and ‘positionality’.
Kimberlé Crenshaw’s article introduces the concept of intersectionality to analyse how race, gender, and other identity markers interact to shape the lived experiences of women of colour — particularly Black women — in ways that are qualitatively different from the experiences of white women or Black men, resulting in Black women being erased or deprioritized in both struggles.
According to Dr. Tara Million (2024) an Assistant Professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Lethbridge ‘positionality’ is about reflecting on yourself, who you are and how it influences the approach to certain topics.
In the classroom, I started considering my positionality and in particular how students’ positionalities could impact the teaching sessions and how crucial is to give voice and empower all the participants within a safe space. To quote the Nigerian-born British television presenter and Paralympian athlete Ade Adapitan (2020) ”If we give people the opportunity to shine, the sky is the limit and as an educator to some extent the height of these limits will depend on how I will be able to interact and intersects my visions with those of my students.
References
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Colour. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp.1241–1299. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039.
I started writing this post just a few hours later. I received an envelope from the Italian consulate that will allow me and all my compatriots to better 5 laws concerning workers’ and immigrants’ rights. Each referendum question coincides with a different card colour. The yellow card, in case the ‘Yes’ wins, is going to be reduced from 10 to 5 years the time of legal residence in Italy of the non-EU adult foreigner for the request for the granting of Italian citizenship (Fig. 1 and 2).
Fig. 1 – Renga, G. 2025. Referendum 2025.Fig. 2 – Renga, G. 2025. Referendum 2025.
I started my research and noticed how Italy is still not aligned with the rest of the most advanced democracies and European countries on this matter (Fig. 2). The abrogation of the previous law will allow other citizens of this World to be granted essential rights (e.g. freedom of movement, right to vote and many other civil and political rights).
As a white European man who has experienced many privileges, it would be an act of violence, racism and hypocrisy hindering other humans from acquiring my same rights.
In the end, am I also not an immigrant who, as a nomad, travelled to another country to live, study, work and build a better future for myself?
Fig. 3 Wikipedia. 2025. Naturalization Residence Requirements by Country.
To paraphrase an article written by Riedel and Rau, the control over migrants represents another facet of the race-religion intersection and how it is deployed to protect the ‘purity’ of the white European gene. In virtue of this, we have noticed how white and Christian Ukrainian refugees were treated way better than Muslim Afghan, Iraqi, Libyan, Palestinian, Somali, Sudanese and Syrian refugees.
Thus, the question is, aren’t they also humans escaping from bombs, dictators and famine?
In the aftermath of the 9/11 events in New York, we have been constantly brainwashed by perpetual anti-Islam propaganda, which has led to the construction of higher walls, sharper barbed wires and nationalist misfortunes like the advent of Donald Trump, ‘Muslim Ban’ and Brexit.
And what’s going on at UAL? On September the 25th 2024 the newly appointed chancellor Clive Myrie who is also an ‘experienced’ BBC journalist called one of our students ‘lunatic’ and ‘fucking idiot’ after the student accused him “to be complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people” through his “biased reporting” (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4 Myrie, C. 2024. F***ing idiot.
I couldn’t believe how our main representative, who was supposed to be the wisest person in that room, reacted towards one of our students. In response to the loss of temper of Mr. Myrie in my everyday tasks as a Technician, Teacher and HPL at LCF I constantly seek to maximise the engagement of all students of all faiths in the learning environment when I work either in the Open Access by sharing didactical material like movies and documentaries (Fig. 5) or presentations that link faith with fashion campaigns (Fig. 6).
As also advocated by the guidance of Advance HE, I avoid stigmatisations and stereotypes about religions, and I constantly enrich my presentation with a diversified gamut of didactical materials which explore different beliefs and increase awareness among our students towards other cultures and religions.
Fig. 5 – Renga, G. 2025. Spike Lee in Mo Better Blues.Fig. 6 – Toscani, O. 1991. Harmony
Middle East Eye (2024). BBC newsreader Clive Myrie calls pro-Palestine student a ‘fucking idiot’. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boq-9eJ7Gdg [Accessed 24 May 2025].
Arday J, Branchu C, Boliver V. What Do We Know About Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Participation in UK Higher Education? Social Policy and Society. 2022;21(1):12-25. doi:10.1017/S1474746421000579
Bowleg, L. (2012) The problem with the phrase women and minorities: intersectionality—an important theoretical framework for public health. American Journal of Public Health, 102, 1267–1273.
Fig. 5 – Renga, G, 2022. Hair. Suwon, South Korea.
Fig. 6 – The Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi, Ministry of Culture, Shri K.K. Chakravarty, conferring the fellowship on eminent artist Arpita Singh, at a function, in New Delhi on October 10, 2014. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arpita_Singh [Accessed 26 May 2025].
Fig. 8 – Fay, N. (2021). Quem foi Frida Kahlo? [online] Pinterest. Available at: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/2322237301016281/ [Accessed 26 May 2025].
Unit 2: Inclusive Practices – Race
I was born in a small town near Napoli in the southern part of Italy, and I grew up in a community where diversity didn’t exist or was mainly dominated by another culture.
Fig. 1 – Italy before and after (most migrants in each Region).
Nonetheless, in the early 90s’ I had the fortune to watch for the first time in my life ‘Do the Right Thing’, which is one of the cinematographic masterpieces directed by the Black-American movie director Spike Lee and released in 1989.
I was mesmerised by how different communities represented by Blacks, Asians, Latinos, and Italians were living together in Brooklyn and at the same time worried about this fragile conviviality as perfectly depicted by Spike Lee.
In one of the greatest scenes of Do the Right Thing, Pino (John Turturro) and Mookie (Spike Lee) begin a conversation about how Pino’s heroes (Magic Johnson, Eddie Murphy and Prince) are all Black, and he is unaware of his unconscious racism. The rest of the scenes see a concatenation of racist stereotypical statements against other cultures and races.
Fig. 2 – Do The Right Thing. 1989. Pino talks to Mookie.
As a southern Italian, the only real encounter with ‘racism’ was when some guys from Milan, which is the economic and financial epicentre of Ital,y called my friends and me ‘peasants’ and my answer was: “It is thanks to peasants that you are not starving”. I was firmly sure that ignorance and anger were the main causes of their racism.
That experience really clicked something because it was powerful and vivid. As the Chief Global Inclusion Officer at Warner Bros. Discovery, Asif Sadiq (2023) asserts during a TED talk,”If we are going to teach people about diversity….let them have experiences”.
Nonetheless, education and history taught at school have always modified the narrative and distorted realities by glorifying the conquistadores and colonisers and depicting the colonised as uncivilised.
At the beginning of episode 3 season 4 of the American TV series produced by HBO in the late 90s and early 2000s’ ‘The Sopranos’, Silvio Dante driven by his pride for Cristopher Columbus ignores that the explorer also exterminated thousands of native-Indians and vehemently attacks those ones who want to protest against the Columbus Day parade.
Fig. 3 – The Sopranos. 2002. Cristopher Columbus.
As the French philosopher Michael Foucault stated: “The strategic adversary is fascism… the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behaviour”
The lack of perspectives and points of view have conceived bias and prejudices since the very stages of our lives leading people towards supremacy, power and domination. The erosion of this monochrome framework and paradigm and the opening of new paths are the main challenges to bring into our education system.
In one of the tasks that I have devised for the ACP Photoshop, I encourage students to make physical collages in groups of 3 and then digitalise them.
In virtue of this, students from different corners of the World have explored each others’ imaginations and legacy instead of merely facing an apathetic screen.
These little tasks, combined with other activities, will surely shift our perceptions towards other races, bringing us closer. As Mr Fingers sings in the song ‘Can You Feel It’ (1986): “You may be black, you may be white; you may be Jew or Gentile. It doesn’t make a difference in our House and this is fresh!
The Soprano (2011). Columbus Day – The Sopranos HD. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBD61skoMk8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBD61skoMk8 [Accessed 21 Jun. 2025].
Unit 2: Peer-to-peer presentation
Call with Emilia Sutherland-Netto-20250707_114614-Meeting Recording.mp4
Unit 2: inclusive practices – Intervention
Intervention Since 2022, in addition to my role as a Technician at the London College of Fashion (LCF), I have been delivering a 4-day course called Adobe Professional Certified (ACP) Photoshop and InDesign to groups of approximately 15 students. Normally, each session starts at 10:00 in the morning and finishes at 16:30, including a one-hour…
Unit 2: Inclusive Practices – Race
Race I was born in a small town near Napoli in the southern part of Italy, and I grew up in a community where diversity didn’t exist or was mainly dominated by a monoculture. Nonetheless, in the early 90s’ I had the fortune to watch for the first time in my life ‘Do the Right…
Intervention Idea
In support of the video, I have also shared the slides that follow… Summary According to Bowleg (2012), ‘Intersectionality is a theoretical framework for understanding how multiple social identities such as race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and disability intersect at the micro-level of individual experience’. As I have mentioned in the previous Unit’s blogs…
Unit 2: Inclusive Practices – Faith
Faith I started writing this post just a few hours later. I received an envelope from the Italian consulate that will allow me and all my compatriots to better 5 laws concerning workers’ and immigrants’ rights. Each referendum question coincides with a different card colour. The yellow card, in case the ‘Yes’ wins, is going…
Unit 2: Inclusive Practices – Disability
Jason and the Adventure of 254 Just a few months ago, I walked from my humble abode in South London to the unknown. I embraced trajectories new to my routine cycle journey, mainly guided by London’s chaotic urban architecture but also by the avoidance of crowds and noisy encounters. To quote Chris Jenks: “ In…
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