Description
This paper draws on two pedagogical projects undertaken at a London University. The first was a module on “visual writing” that linked advanced visual skills with critical approaches to visuality (http://www.visualwriting.org/exhibition). The second was an intensive week-long workshop on investigative journalism, co-taught with journalist Daniel Trilling (http://rtn.earth). In both cases, the advanced skill provision was entwined with critical approaches to practice: cultural studies in the case of the former, social justice journalism in the case of the latter. Students were encouraged to use their newly acquired technical and conceptual tools to explore personal projects that mattered to them and that extend beyond the restrictions of the disciplinary imaginaries promoted in their department. The result was a richer, more radical output that highlighted areas inaccessible by their current syllabus, methods and institutional commitments. For example: the genocide in Gaza, healthcare and racism, policing, transphobia, histories of Black settlement. In addition, students gained skills with established "transferability" to creative professions, alongside a demystification of the creative industries. This last attribute frames how such projects are currently pitched: skills projects that strengthen “employability”. This is an important aspect, but I suggest creative practices and advanced skill provision based on critical foundations should be integrated into politics/IR pedagogy earlier, to enrich students experiences and diversity assessments, but more importantly as “throat clearing exercises” (following Tina Campt) that allow students as well as staff to remap the field of study so that it is culturally relevant to students.
