Interrogating Spaces is a podcast series that examines ideas around inclusivity and attainment in Higher Education. Each episode will explore democratic and decolonised teaching practices through dialogue with practitioners as well as staff and students from University of the Arts London.
This podcast is brought to you by the Academic Enhancement team at UAL.
For more information and resources please visit:
https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/resources/academic-enhancement-resources

Interrogating Spaces Podcast

This playlist contains the full podcast 'About Inquilab' as well as its 5 separate chapters.

Outraged by the brutal murder of George Floyd many individuals within higher education (HE) were incensed, leading to a collective realisation of the imperative for transformative action. In response, Dr. Gurnam Singh, Jheni Arboine, and a small cohort of UAL staff and students made a decisive commitment to establish a distinctive reading group—Inquilab. This group distinguishes itself by embracing an unapologetically radical approach, with its foundation rooted in the principles of decolonisation, anti-racism, and flattened hierarchies. Inquilab’s primary objective is to foster an authentic space where UAL staff and students can converge, encouraging the exploration and contemplation of radical pedagogy and practices within a supportive, open, and organic space. 

In the podcast we hear from Inquilab’s founders about the context, values and ideas that were behind its beginnings and how it has since developed into its 3rd year. Participants and contributors tell us what brings them back and how the unique qualities and approaches that Inquilab embraces makes it a very different kind of discursive space. We hear about what it means to be able to bring your true self to a studio setting and how that fundamentally reconfigures hierarchies to create a greater sense of belonging and community for both staff and students.

About Inquilab Podcast

Decolonising Acts: Practice, Research and Pedagogy is a symposium that took place on September 18th 2024 at Central St Martins. The event brought together UAL staff to present, celebrate and explore work in the area of decoloniality and was organised by the academic enhancement team.

Find out more about the academic enhancement team: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/academic-enhancement

Decolonising Acts: A Practice, Research and Pedagogy

In this walk, Dr. Manrutt Wongkaew leads Carole Morrison and Gemma Riggs on an autobiographical walk from the now closed LCF building at John Princes St though Saville Row to Soho and China Town. We hear about Manrutt’s experiences as a tailor in Saville Row and how he embraces colour in his own fashion styling as a rebellion against conformity. Manrutt shares his stories of community in Soho that have informed his practice as a lecturer and his approach that allows students to bring their authentic selves to the learning environment. 

This is part of a series of walking dialogues exploring pedagogy developed by Gemma Riggs in the Academic Enhancement team at the University of the Arts London. For my information and to access many more resources on pedagogy and social justice visit: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/resources/academic-enhancement-resources

Walking Pedagogies: Dr Manrutt Wongkaew walks through Soho with Carole Morrison

This recording is an audio walk and dialogue between Dr Gurman Singh and Rahul Patel exploring the streets of Southall and its significance to the anti-racist movement that emerged in the late 1970’s. Gurnam leads us from the station, through ‘New Southall’ and ‘Old Southall’, passing key locations including the old Dominion Cinema, the Singh Sabha Gurdwara and Southall Town Hall. We learn about how the brutal and racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar sparked a powerful anti-racist movement that lasted many years and brought together communities from around the UK. We explore the numerous groups that played a key role in this scene including the Indian Workers Association, Southall Asian Youth Movement and frame these in relation to recent movements such as Black Lives Matter and Decolonising the Curriculum. Gurnam and Rahul discuss the implications for education and learning, and what a ‘Pedagogy of the Street’ might be.  

Walking pedagogies in Southall: Dr Gurnam Singh and Rahul Patel

This reading by Dr Royce Mahawatte was made as part of Inquilab - an alternative reading group at UAL that explores decolonial pedagogy in practice.
For more information about Inquilab visit: 
https://inquilab.myblog.arts.ac.uk/
Dr Royce Mahawatte's research profile can be found here:
https://researchers.arts.ac.uk/609-royce-mahawatte

‘The Walk of Life’ (work in progress) by Dr Royce Mahawatte

In this episode of interrogating spaces, Dr Emily Salines takes us on an exploration of feedback practice, and how we might take a more compassionate approach.

The impact of feedback on student learning is well documented in educational literature. We also know that it is a critical area of practice where the emotional impact of assessment is at play. We speak with a number of practitioners, teachers and students to set out to map a framework for compassionate feedback practice and how we might enact it 

The questions we are asking are:

How can we harness feedback to support learning in a way that does no harm and supports students?
How can we use feedback to foster belonging?
Can compassion help us? And what would compassionate feedback look like?
This work is part of the QAA collaborative enhancement project on ‘Belonging through assessment: pipelines of compassion’ with UAL, Glasgow School of Art and Leeds Arts University.

Compassionate Feedback

This panel discussion on pass/fail assessment in arts higher education took place online during the ‘Belonging through assessment: Pipelines of compassion’ symposium on 21st October 2021. The symposium forms part of the QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project 2021 and is a partnership between University of the Arts London (UAL), Glasgow School of Art and Leeds Arts University (LAU). The discussion between invited speakers: Professor Sam Broadhead (LAU), Dr Neil Currant, (UAL) and Peter Hughes, (LAU) is facilitated by Dr Kate Mori (Academic Engagement Manager, QAA).

The discussion explores the potential of pass/fail as a compassionate approach to assessment and explores the challenges in changing practice and policies from the perspective of staff, students and the wider institution. A fascinating conversation that explores the complexities of feedback and assessment and implications for student belonging.

For more information please visit: https://belongingthroughassessment.myblog.arts.ac.uk/

Pass/ fail assessment in arts higher education

This polyvocal podcast tells the story so far of Inquilab / Ink-Lab; an alternative reading group based at University of the Arts London.
 
Outraged by the brutal murder of George Floyd many individuals within higher education (HE) were incensed, leading to a collective realisation of the imperative for transformative action. In response, Dr. Gurnam Singh, Jheni Arboine, and a small cohort of UAL staff and students made a decisive commitment to establish a distinctive reading group—Inquilab. This group distinguishes itself by embracing an unapologetically radical approach, with its foundation rooted in the principles of decolonisation, anti-racism, and flattened hierarchies. Inquilab's primary objective is to foster an authentic space where UAL staff and students can converge, encouraging the exploration and contemplation of radical pedagogy and practices within a supportive, open, and organic space.
 
In this podcast we hear from Inquilab’s founders about the context, values and ideas that were behind its beginnings and how it has since developed into its 3rd year. Participants and contributors tell us what brings them back and how the unique qualities and approaches that Inquilab embraces makes it a very different kind of discursive space. We hear about what it means to be able to bring your true self to a studio setting and how that fundamentally reconfigures hierarchies to create a greater sense of belonging and community for both staff and students.

Contributors:
Jheni Arboine
Nadia Idle 
Deshna Mehta
Dr Gurnam Singh
Dr. Manrutt Wongkaew

Music:
Thank you to Shaheed Bhai Mewa Singh for allowing us to use their music in this podcast

Sound recording credits: 
Tim Kahn for the recordings of a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland, Oregon, 7th June 2020

Production and Editing:
This podcast has been created and edited by Gemma Riggs

About Inquilab (Full podcast)

This is part 4 for the About Inquilab Podcast, where contributors discuss concepts of decoloniality in relation to higher education and how it might manifest in practice and through the Inquilab reading group

About Inquilab Section 04: Decoloniality and Higher Education

What does it mean to bring your 'self' into your teaching practice and how might this create a more inclusive learning environment?

About Inquilab Section 03: Self, truth and lived experience

We hear extracts of an Inquilab session from July 2023 and hear from participants about what it felt like to be in the session. During this session participants were asked to share objects that meant something to them whilst the group painted their own watercolour

About Inquilab Section 02: What Does An Inquilab Session Feel Like?

We hear from Inquilab founders who describe how the reading group came about and what key ideas, methodologies and principles it embraces

About Inquilab Section 01: Introduction - What is Inquilab?

Roshni Bhagotra: AI Coloniality and Pedagogy

This three-part podcast contains deeper reflections on some of the Making The Creative Majority report’s key findings. Each episode speaks to experts with real world experience of alternative routes into creative work, widening participation into higher education, and diversifying the creative sector.

This podcast was produced by a partnership between academics and staff from UAL, KCL and University of Manchester.

3 separate podcasts:

How do we make the creative majority? 
Dr. Joanna Abeyie MBE (Founder & Chief Executive Officer BLUE MOON & Common Councilor)
Dr. Natalie Wreyford (King's College London)
Prof.  David O'Brien (The University of Manchester)

What works to widen participation and support student access to higher education?
Dr. Zoe Baker ( University of York)
Dr. Omar Khan (TASO)
Dr. Tamsyn Dent (King's College London)

Why work experience and alternative routes matter for a more diverse creative sector
Craig Pennington (Future Yard)
Siraaj Mitha (Open City)
Tessa Read (University of the Arts London)

How do we make the creative majority?

Siobhan Clay is head of Academic Enhancement at UAL.

Decolonising Acts: A Practice, Research and Pedagogy is a symposium that took place on September 18th 2024 at Central St Martins. The event brought together UAL staff to present, celebrate and explore work in the area of decoloniality at UAL and was organised by the academic enhancement team at UAL.

For more information visit: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/academic-enhancement

Decolonising Acts: Introduction by Siobhan Clay

Dr Amita Nijhawan is Educational Developer in Co-Creation in the Academic Enhancement team at UAL.

Decolonising Acts: A Practice, Research and Pedagogy is a symposium that took place on September 18th 2024 at Central St Martins. The event brought together UAL staff to present, celebrate and explore work in the area of decoloniality at UAL and was organised by the academic enhancement team.

For more information visit: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/academic-enhancement

Decolonising Acts: Introduction by Amita Nijhawan

Victoria Odeniyi is an applied linguist. She is a UAL Decolonising Arts Institute Research Fellow and the Institute’s lead for UAL’s Decolonising Arts Education Secondment Scheme. Victoria was a researcher on the ‘Developing Educator’s project at Queen Mary. She was also a research assistant on the Andrew Mellon Foundation funded project Reading Peer Review. Victoria led UAL’s 'Reimagining Conversations' with multilingual international students project (2020-2022) which sought to raise awareness of the educational and creative potential of the use of language. Victoria is an Editorial Board Member of the ‘In Other Words Dictionary Project: A Contextualized Dictionary to Problematize Otherness.

Decolonising Acts: A Practice, Research and Pedagogy is a symposium that took place on September 18th 2024 at Central St Martins. The event brought together UAL staff to present, celebrate and explore work in the area of decoloniality at UAL and was organised by the academic enhancement team.

For more information visit: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/academic-enhancement

Decolonising Acts: Victoria Odeniyi

Mia Liyanage is Educational Developer Climate Racial and Social Justice at UAL.

Decolonising Acts: A Practice, Research and Pedagogy is a symposium that took place on September 18th 2024 at Central St Martins. The event brought together UAL staff to present, celebrate and explore work in the area of decoloniality at UAL and was organised by the academic enhancement team at UAL.

For more information visit: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/academic-enhancement

Decolonising Acts: Mia Liyanage

Carole Morrison is the Head of Social Purpose in the Curriculum at London College of Fashion (LCF). She co-creates interventions with staff, students and neighbourhoods to explore, promote and embed issues of citizenship, social conscience and ethics into curriculum. Carole has worked in Tate Britain, Arts Council England, A New Direction and Centro Cultural Sao Paulo (Brazil). Her current area of research explores anti-colonial thinking and practice and she is a recipient of the Advance HE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (2020) and an Associate Member of the LCF Centre for Sustainable Fashion (2024).


Decolonising Acts: A Practice, Research and Pedagogy is a symposium that took place on September 18th 2024 at Central St Martins. The event brought together UAL staff to present, celebrate and explore work in the area of decoloniality at UAL and was organised by the academic enhancement team.

For more information visit: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/academic-enhancementv

Decolonising Acts: Carole Morrison

Kevin J Brazant is the Progression and Attainment Project Manager and a Senior Fellow at the London College of Communication (LCC) at UAL. His work prioritises addressing the degree awarding gap at college level. He coordinates the Changemakers initiative, working with students as partners in decolonising, anti-racism and inclusive practices in teaching and learning. His practice research, ‘Disrupting the Discourse’, advocates using disruptive pedagogies for social justice in education.  Kevin uses storytelling, podcasting and digital content creation as part of his platform Lounge Akademics, and collaborates with companies and brands committed to social justice.

Decolonising Acts: A Practice, Research and Pedagogy is a symposium that took place on September 18th 2024 at Central St Martins. The event brought together UAL staff to present, celebrate and explore work in the area of decoloniality at UAL and was organised by the academic enhancement team.

For more information visit: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/academic-enhancement

Decolonising Acts: Kevin J Brazant

Chapter 01. London College of Fashion at John Princes St - Introduction

Chapter 02. Dr. Manrutt Wongkaew and Carole Morrison introduce themselves

Chapter 03. Bringing 'Self' into teaching

Chapter 04. Walking to Savile Row

00. Full Conversation: Dr. Manrutt Wongkaew walks with Carole Morrison through Soho

Chapter 05. Racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar outside the Dominion Cinema and the start of the Asian Youth Movement. Introduction to Suresh Grover, who founded the movement … ‘Here we were Politically Black’.

This recording is an audio walk and dialogue between Dr Gurman Singh and Rahul Patel exploring the streets of Southall and its significance to the anti-racist movement that emerged in the late 1970’s. Gurnam leads us from the station, through ‘New Southall’ and ‘Old Southall’, passing key locations including the old Dominion Cinema, the Singh Sabha Gurdwara and Southall Town Hall. We learn about how the brutal and racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar sparked a powerful anti-racist movement that lasted many years and brought together communities from around the UK. We explore the numerous groups that played a key role in this scene including the Indian Workers Association, Southall Asian Youth Movement and frame these in relation to recent movements such as Black Lives Matter and Decolonising the Curriculum. Gurnam and Rahul discuss the implications for education and learning, and what a ‘Pedagogy of the Street’ might be.

Chapter 05. Racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar

Chapter 15. Music and the anti-racist movements in the late 70’s / early 80’s

Chapter 01. Introduction – Gurnam shares some family history and how he came to live in Southall. He discusses migration from The Punjab and the industrial activity at the time (Southall station)

Chapter 01.: Introduction

Chapter 08: National politics and the election of Margaret Thatcher. Enoch Powell’s legitimisation of the national front and use of inflammatory language around race and othering of cultures. Thatcher’s rhetoric of ‘swamping’ 

This recording is an audio walk and dialogue between Dr Gurman Singh and Rahul Patel exploring the streets of Southall and its significance to the anti-racist movement that emerged in the late 1970’s. Gurnam leads us from the station, through ‘New Southall’ and ‘Old Southall’, passing key locations including the old Dominion Cinema, the Singh Sabha Gurdwara and Southall Town Hall. We learn about how the brutal and racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar sparked a powerful anti-racist movement that lasted many years and brought together communities from around the UK. We explore the numerous groups that played a key role in this scene including the Indian Workers Association, Southall Asian Youth Movement and frame these in relation to recent movements such as Black Lives Matter and Decolonising the Curriculum. Gurnam and Rahul discuss the implications for education and learning, and what a ‘Pedagogy of the Street’ might be.

Chapter 08. National politics and the election of Margaret Thatcher

Chapter 10. Shree Ram Mandir temple

Chapter 14. Southall Town Hall: Centrepoint for demonstrations of 23rd April 1979 against the national front. How the coordinated anti-racist movement 
Secondary demonstrations in1981 at the Hanborough Tavern where police once again mobilised in defence of the British National Party

This recording is an audio walk and dialogue between Dr Gurman Singh and Rahul Patel exploring the streets of Southall and its significance to the anti-racist movement that emerged in the late 1970’s. Gurnam leads us from the station, through ‘New Southall’ and ‘Old Southall’, passing key locations including the old Dominion Cinema, the Singh Sabha Gurdwara and Southall Town Hall. We learn about how the brutal and racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar sparked a powerful anti-racist movement that lasted many years and brought together communities from around the UK. We explore the numerous groups that played a key role in this scene including the Indian Workers Association, Southall Asian Youth Movement and frame these in relation to recent movements such as Black Lives Matter and Decolonising the Curriculum. Gurnam and Rahul discuss the implications for education and learning, and what a ‘Pedagogy of the Street’ might be.

Chapter 14. Southall Town Hall

Chapter 03. New Southall / Old Southall (Walking over Southall Bridge). Walking though ‘New Southall’, observing recent developments and gentrification. How migrant workers and cheap labour have formed Southall, and how dynamics have changed over the last 40 years.

Chapter 03. New Southall / Old Southall

Chapter 12.  Moving from Old Southall along high St to new Southall – to the town hall. The murder of Blair Peach in 1979 and the anti-facist resistance that happened in response.

This recording is an audio walk and dialogue between Dr Gurman Singh and Rahul Patel exploring the streets of Southall and its significance to the anti-racist movement that emerged in the late 1970’s. Gurnam leads us from the station, through ‘New Southall’ and ‘Old Southall’, passing key locations including the old Dominion Cinema, the Singh Sabha Gurdwara and Southall Town Hall. We learn about how the brutal and racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar sparked a powerful anti-racist movement that lasted many years and brought together communities from around the UK. We explore the numerous groups that played a key role in this scene including the Indian Workers Association, Southall Asian Youth Movement and frame these in relation to recent movements such as Black Lives Matter and Decolonising the Curriculum. Gurnam and Rahul discuss the implications for education and learning, and what a ‘Pedagogy of the Street’ might be.

Chapter 12.  Moving from Old Southall

00. Walking Pedagogies in Southall - Full edit

Chapter 04. Walking towards the Dominion Cinema: Introduction to the Indian Workers Association and how they contributed to the antiracist movement. The Southall Asian Youth Movement.

Chapter 04. Walking towards the Dominion Cinema

Chapter 16. Education: schools weren’t offering a balanced curriculum and the acknowledgement of institutionalised Racism. Gurnam talks about his employment by the state as a social worker – partly because of his engagement as an activist. 

This recording is an audio walk and dialogue between Dr Gurman Singh and Rahul Patel exploring the streets of Southall and its significance to the anti-racist movement that emerged in the late 1970’s.

For more information visit: https://walkingpedagogies.myblog.arts.ac.uk/

Chapter 16. Education

Chapter 18. Today's Higher Education environment

Chapter 07. Outside the Library (Old Dominion Cinema) – how history is made visible and how this relates to pedagogy and education. How do we understand our past and how does relate to education? Descriptions of a number of anti-fascist movements that emerged at the time

This recording is an audio walk and dialogue between Dr Gurman Singh and Rahul Patel exploring the streets of Southall and its significance to the anti-racist movement that emerged in the late 1970’s. Gurnam leads us from the station, through ‘New Southall’ and ‘Old Southall’, passing key locations including the old Dominion Cinema, the Singh Sabha Gurdwara and Southall Town Hall. We learn about how the brutal and racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar sparked a powerful anti-racist movement that lasted many years and brought together communities from around the UK. We explore the numerous groups that played a key role in this scene including the Indian Workers Association, Southall Asian Youth Movement and frame these in relation to recent movements such as Black Lives Matter and Decolonising the Curriculum. Gurnam and Rahul discuss the implications for education and learning, and what a ‘Pedagogy of the Street’ might be.

Chapter 07.  Outside the Library (Old Dominion Cinema)

Chapter 02. Life in Southall and ‘Little Punjab’. (Southall station)

This recording is an audio walk and dialogue between Dr Gurman Singh and Rahul Patel exploring the streets of Southall and its significance to the anti-racist movement that emerged in the late 1970’s. Gurnam leads us from the station, through ‘New Southall’ and ‘Old Southall’, passing key locations including the old Dominion Cinema, the Singh Sabha Gurdwara and Southall Town Hall. We learn about how the brutal and racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar sparked a powerful anti-racist movement that lasted many years and brought together communities from around the UK. We explore the numerous groups that played a key role in this scene including the Indian Workers Association, Southall Asian Youth Movement and frame these in relation to recent movements such as Black Lives Matter and Decolonising the Curriculum. Gurnam and Rahul discuss the implications for education and learning, and what a ‘Pedagogy of the Street’ might be.

Chapter 02: Life in Southall

Chapter 17. The three blue plaques outside Southall Town Hall for Gurdip Singh Chaggar / Blair Peach / Misty in Roots. The part that art and creativity played in the movement. Relationship between activism and education – bringing together body, soul and mind.

Chapter 17.  three blue plaques outside Southall Town Hall

Chapter 13. Murder of Blair Peach

Chapter 09. Waking down King St towards the Singh Sabha Gurdwara

This episode of Interrogating Spaces profiles the latest Decolonising the Arts Curriculum exhibition at Central St Martins library, curated by Rahul Patel (Lecturer on MA MA Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central St Martins and Educational Developer at UAL’s Teaching and Learning exchange).

It features conversations with the five featured artists (Maria Bendixen, Dr Jo Shah, Tobi Falade, Siyan Zhang and Joanna Mamede) about their displays within the exhibition. Through the ideas at play within each of their artworks, we gain insights into diverse positions on decolonisation.

The feature is introduced by Rahul Patel.

Decolonising the Arts Curriculum: Personal Narratives

This episode of interrogating spaces features a conversation between South African filmmaker Rehad Desai and Sandra Janette Poulson who studies Fashion Print at Central St Martins. They come together after a screening of Rehad’s film ‘Everything Must Fall’ which charts the #feesmustfall movement that took South Africa’s Higher 
Education institutions by storm in 2015. They discuss the film and its implications for universities and pedagogy from a global perspective.
The film screening was programmed by Rahul Patel, Lecturer on MA MA Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central St Martins and Educational Developer at UAL’s Teaching and Learning exchange.

Everything Must Fall: A conversation between Rehad Desai and Sandra Janette Poulson

Interrogating Spaces examines ideas around inclusivity and attainment in Higher Education. In each episode we speak with staff, students and practitioners to explore democratic and decolonised teaching practices.

Interrogating Spaces is brought to you by the Academic Enhancement Team within the Teaching and Learning Exchange at the University of the Arts London.


For more information please visit 
https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/teaching-and-learning-exchange/academic-enhancement

Interrogating Spaces / Academic Enhancement at UAL

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