Reflections from the films and readings:
What I got from this talk by Kwame Anthony Appiah was that there is no point in arguing whether a religion is good or bad as all religions has examples of both. It is more helpful to focus on the power structures behind religions and the people who wield them and to what benefit.
One thought I had in relation to Kwame’s story of King Rattray, who is presented as someone who thought his actions were purely religious, but they were of course also political. The idea that people put faith in traditions to uphold their sense of reality feels valid today, I think the way people uphold traditional ways of operating within an institution often think that their world will crumble if they were to change their ways. Maybe it would? But maybe that would be a good thing?
Haifaa Jawads essay about “the case of visible Muslim women” was an interesting read.
She explains that many modern-day views on Muslim women (and men) come from a “lack of knowledge and understanding of each other’s lives” (Jawad, H 2022). On a personal level I can draw many parallels to how my experience as a queer person often faces hostility due to people simply not knowing anything about me. This feels very aligned with my goals for my intervention, which I hope can lead to students getting to know each other and filling gaps in knowledge together.
In this essay, she presents dressing and presenting in certain ways as a form of “embodiment of faith”. I know faith often has a religious connotation, but I cannot help to connect that to how I or other queer people choose to present publicly. When I dress colorfully, color my hair or paint my nails I often think of that as me embodying my faith or belief in queerness. I need to continue reflecting on this, but I think it could be quite helpful to use the idea of an embodiment in my intervention. Maybe for unit 3?
Simran Jeet Singh talks about his education practice in America and how he acknowledges the country’s colonial and racist history and how it is still prominent today. He is frank about the urgency and importance of holding these discussions alive in the classroom, and how we can do that by including examples and dissecting the multiple ways people look at social issues.
He appears to have practice within political studies, so I am trying to reflect on how to do this within an illustration context. An example could be by showing a piece of my work (which is incredibly homosexual and graphic) and explain who would find joy in this work and with honesty explaining that this work angers some to the point of threatening with violence against me and my community. Not a finished thought.
These were the most prominent reflections I had from the references.
Blibliography:
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
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/
Trinity University (2016) Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in the Classroom. [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAOKTo_DOk