Religion, Belief and Faith identities UAL website
A great set of resources and examples of how religion can be integrated as part of a curriculum in creative and inclusive ways. I was particularly struck by the case studies section and how spatial interventions can be placed into academic environments to provide a space for people to practice their faith. I also felt that this would help encourage conversations about religion and its place within an academic environment and the different ways that it can be fostered.
As part of the curriculum on MA GCD, the students explore the built environment and find aspects of it that they feel resonates with them, finding symbols in the space that they can then form into a project. One of my students is Muslim and he explored a mosque in this project and this opened up a discussion about the Muslim faith which I felt was important given that some people might not be familiar with the specifics of it. Through this project, I hope it encouraged students to be able to discuss aspects of their faith in a class context, but also to make work about topics (whether religion or otherwise) that are important to them.
Religion in Britain: Challenges for Higher Education
Changes in religious demography
I anticipated this section of the report would highlight that younger demographics would not consider themselves to be religious and this does seem to be the case overall. However, I found it interesting that many younger individuals would identify as being spiritually inclined. I would be curious to hear more about the spiritual perspective of younger demographics and what that means to them as I imagine this to be a broad and varied going beyond culture and religious perspectives.
Minority Identities
One of the things that I found most striking when reading this section was in relation to clothing and how ones religious identity can be reflected through clothing. The text cites immigrants to western countries wearing turbans and headscarfs and how this could potentially be seen as controversial in certain cultures. However, this ultimately made me realise that dressing in a certain way can communicate to a wider group who you are and what you believe and this to me is a very powerful and important thing. It is not too dissimilar to my students who are putting themselves out there to their peers revealing their beliefs and positions as practitioners.
Secular states and public religions
Interesting observation about how the state identifies what is acceptable in terms of religion within society. It made me think about how religion is portrayed in the media and how it is generally individuals from the Church of England that are represented in the news. When Muslim authorities are shown it is not always in a good light and often associated with conflict in the Middle East or terrorism. This is not a very inclusive approach to religion in the west and I am wondering if having more religious people represented in the media talking about these issues it would help broaden the scope of how religion is perceived the UK today.
Expanding the conversation, interview with Mark Dean
Interesting conversation with Mark Dean about the role of religion in a UAL context. I found the part of the interview regarding how art education supports religious students to be particularly insightful and how it is complicated by issues of intersectionality. However, I think what this highlights, in particular in relation to my teaching practice, is that sensitivity and openness is an important part of teaching and that it’s important for students to feel comfortable bringing their full selves to the class room.
There haven’t been many students that I have taught that make work where religion is a big part of their practice, but there have been a number who explore spirituality in relation to their culture (although it could be argued this and religion could go hand in hand). This has been a great opportunity for myself and other students to have a wider understanding of spirituality from a cultural and personal perspective.
It’s a really interesting point to discuss ‘religious identity reflected through clothing’ and I agree more discussion on the topic would help dismiss prejudices in the West.
Hi Houman. I am inspired by your blogging sessions, because you have an intuitive response to the tasks, and are able to directly relate these to your practice. As a fashion designer I was also interested to note how dress makes certain faiths visible. And within Creed, how generally held attitudes against Islam about the inclusion of women, is evident in most faiths. I was particularly stuck, when I stopped to think, how many of my students work relate to faith, and that religion and the secular are not separate. I don’t have any suggestions about what to add – other than some imagery around the topics. Thank you.
Hi Houman, thank you for your interesting blog response. It is great to read about your example of how you were able to have open discussions about the Muslim faith in the classroom through a student project. I also found your other point interesting about the change in how younger people define and relate spirituality. That would be an interesting angle to explore further.