Appiah (2014) examines religion’s complex intersectionality with race, gender, and socioeconomic status, citing examples like Agamemnon’s sacrifice and colonial influences. Reki (2023) reveals how faith intersects with identity, leading to epistemic injustice for minority religious groups, perpetuating the marginalization of Sikhs and Muslims. Intersectionality, pioneered by Crenshaw and Collins, underscores how discrimination compounds to marginalize individuals and religious minorities (Reki, 2023). Visible minority groups like Sikhs and Muslims face stereotyping, leading to self-censorship and harm (Reki, 2023). In order to address epistemic injustice necessitates understanding negative prejudices impacting religious and non-religious individuals. Additionally, religious identity intersects with gender and exacerbates injustice for Muslim women (Reki, 2023). Prejudicial stereotypes against veiled Muslim women result in exclusion from secular and political spheres. Hence, the racialization of religion distorts their testimony and generates harmful assumptions about rationality (Reki, 2023). In an article journal it is argued that Islam’s intersection with gender identity and physical activity is multifaceted (Jawad, 2022). Despite islamic support for women’s involvement in sports, various barriers limit Muslim women’s participation. This is exacerbated by media portrayal and Islamophobia. To address these challenges requires understanding of religious beliefs within inclusive environments (Jawad, 2022).
According to statistics provided by the University of the Arts London, data reveals that among students, 57% reported having no religion, while Christians account for 11.8%, Hindus for 2.4%, and 4% identify as spiritual (Active Dashboard, 2023/24). Also 31.7% of students identify as Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME), while 65.3% identify as white. This demographic diversity brings a wealth of linguistic differences, religious beliefs and varied perspectives. Drawing from my teaching experience in a unit called quantitative methods, I integrate the 7 C’s of engagement to facilitate anti-racism attitudes. In an open classroom environment, I empower students to take ownership of their research laboratory reports, being considerate and fostering courage to ask questions and provide constructive feedback to each other. Students learn to transit from the fear zone to the learning and growth zone (Kendi, 2019) by confronting inequities and listening to classmates who look and are different from each other. Through role-playing, active negotiation, and problem-solving within teams, students collaborate and share research findings in the second year of Psychology of Fashion. Throughout this process students are reminded to express concerns politely, communicate clearly, and provide constructive feedback to enhance learning (Austerlitz et al., 2008).This approach reflects the pedagogy of ambiguity allowing students freedom to experiment and develop identity (Austerlitz et al., 2008). Professor Simran Singh of Trinity University discusses religion’s intersectionality with discrimination and diverse identities (Trinity University, 2016), challenging stereotypes through his personal experiences. Singh integrates power dynamics and political propaganda discussions in his classroom and empowers students to interpret political dynamics and power strategically (Trinity University, 2016). Through analysis of speech and media, students gain insight into political dynamics, highlighting the complexity of diversity and social injustice (Trinity University, 2016).
References
Active Dashboards (2023/24). University of the Arts London. Enrolments and Profile. Students’ Profile by Characteristic. Available at: ttps://dashboards.arts.ac.uk/dashboard/ActiveDashboards/DashboardPage.aspx?dashboardid=5c6bb274-7645-4500-bb75-7e334f68ff24&dashcontextid=636529875869474104 (Accessed 9 March 2024).
Appiah, K.A. (2014) Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question). Youtube [Online]. 16 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY(Accessed 14 May 2024).
Austerlitz,N.(2008). Unspoken interactions:Exploing the unspoken dimensions of learning and teaching in creative subjects. London: The centre for learning in Art and Design:University of the Arts London.
Jawad, H. (2022) Islam, Women and Sport: The Case of Visible Muslim Women. [Online]. Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/09/islam-women-and-sport-the-case-of-visible-muslim-women.
Kendi,I.X.(2019).How to be an antiracist.The New York Times Bestseller
Reki, J. (2023) Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account. Hypatia 38, pp779–800. Available to download from Moodle via the Readings & Resources folder.
Trinity University (2016). Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in the Classroom. [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAOKTo_DOk (Accessed 13 May 2024).
The summarization of different perspectives, along with the presentation of demographics at UAL, contextualized the subject matter and highlighted the diversity within the academic community. I appreciate how Zoi empowers and integrates measures against discrimination and racism. Zoi was able to balance promoting creativity and freedom with encouraging the class to be considerate and provide positive feedback.
Thank you for your comment above with regards to the experience of diversiity in faith, language and race within the academic education. It is greatly important when education serves life education. And also useful for students to have the space to collaborate within their teams in academia. By getting students practicing team collaboration this can create a space for students to acknowledge other team members who embody different faith and culture experiences. They can learn that despite differences in faith and culture ideologies students can use dialogue to improve their projects and ideas. And that it is through feedback exchange that students can blend ideas and projects and integrate adult education to life education and vice versa.
Thanks for sharing your methods for addressing religious prejudice in your practice. I’d be interested to understand whether you have ever experienced problems regarding this issue in class, or whether your approach is purely preventative? In my experience, the students at UAL (specifically CSM, where I teach) are tolerant and respectful of each other. However, since reading Crenshaw, I have certainly started to think more about issues that I previously may not have been aware of.