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 since 2022, I have been working as a Learning Technologist at the London College of Fashion (LCF) and I have been delivering a 4-day course called Adobe Professional Certified (ACP) Photoshop and InDesign.

As mentioned by an article written by Vikki Boliver from Durham University the HE curriculum dominated by White European standards and canons of scientific and scholarly knowledge.  In many cases, ethnic minority students are engaging with a curriculum that does not reflect their socialisation, worldview, history or lived experience.

In particular, the shocking murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 I have been digging more about the need for decolonising our HE curriculum “by ending the domination of Western epistemological traditions, histories and figures”(Boliver, 202).

In virtue of this, I have noticed how I needed to unmoor my knowledge and delve into the cultures, faiths and nationalities of students who come from all around the World.

During the delivery of my course I made an introduction Welcome slide in all the languages and others related to the ‘inspiring’ context for the presentation with artworks of the Indian female artist Arpita Singh and Mexican disable artist Frirda Khalo who at the age of six contracted polio which eventually made her right leg grow shorter and thinner than the left. The illness forced her to be isolated from her peers for months, and she was bullied.

I brought in my teaching context to spur our students and to tell them that they are capable of achieving the impossible if they only want to.

References

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

BBC (2020). George Floyd: What Happened in the Final Moments of His Life. BBC News. [online] 16 Jul. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52861726.

‌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.

UAL (2024). Creating accessible digital content. [online] UAL. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/creating-accessible-digital-content [Accessed 26 May 2025].

‌Zahra Jamshed (2016). From ‘cow’ to cover girl, model Winnie Harlow is changing beauty standards. [online] CNN. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/winnie-harlow-interview-model-qa [Accessed 26 May 2025].

List of images

Fig. 1 – Floyd, G. 2020. Selfie. Minneapolis, USA.

Fig. 2 – Renga, G. 2025. Welcome in all languages. London, UK.

Fig. 3 – Renga, G. 2024. Vitruvian Man. London, UK.

Fig. 4 – Renga, G., 2024. InDesign Process Screenshot. London, UK.

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. 7 – Renga, G. 2025 Arpita Singh Exhibition @ Serpentine Gallery. London, UK.

Fig. 8 – Anderson, E. (2019). Frida Kahlo Painted Using Assistive Technology (and So Can You). [online] AT3 Centre. Available at: https://at3center.net/2019/07/08/frida-kahlo-painted-using-assistive-technology-and-so-can-you/.

Fig. 9 –  Fay, N. (2021). Quem foi Frida Kahlo? [online] Pinterest. Available at: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/2322237301016281/ [Accessed 26 May 2025].