Interrogating Spaces: podcast launch

Attainment November 28, 2019December 9, 2021 0 Comments

Interrogating Spaces is a new podcast series that has a focus on inclusivity and attainment in Higher Education. Each episode will interrogate democratic and decolonised teaching practices through dialogue with practitioners as well as UAL staff and students.

The podcast takes a conversational approach to allow frank and open discussion and capture current thinking from a range of perspectives. We aim to approach challenging subjects and take on difficult conversations with a view to inspiring new spaces of enquiry in inclusive pedagogy.

The series launches with two episodes that look at take different perspectives on decolonisation:

Poster for ‘Everything Must Fall’ by filmmaker Rehad Desai

The first is a conversation between filmmaker Rehad Desai and Sandra Janette Poulson who studies Fashion Print at Central St Martins. They speak after a screening of Rehad’s film ‘Everything must fall’ that tells the story of the #feesmustfall movement that started in South Africa in 2015. Rehad describes the key motivations in making the film as well at the political landscape it emerged from. Through Rehad and Sandra’s conversation we traverse continents to get a global perspective on inequalities within Higher Education and the urgency of decolonisation.

The second episode offers personal insights around race, bias, personal heritage and ‘otherness’. It is a compendium of voices from participants and organisers of the latest exhibition as part of the Decolonising the Arts Curriculum Zine initiative at UAL. The five featured artists are Maria Bendixen, Dr Jo Shah, Tobi Alexandre Falade, Siyan Zhang and Joanna Mamede who speak very openly about their personal experiences relating to the displays they presented. The exhibition took place at Central St Martins Library and was curated by Rahul Patel Lecturer on MA MA Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central St Martins and Educational Developer at UAL’s Teaching, Learning and Employability Exchange.