I started off these resources with Kwame Anthony Appiah’s talk ‘is religion good or bad? (this is a trick question)’ 1where he discusses spiritual agency, breaking down the paradigm religions into sub-parts, talking about his upbringing within the Asante religion in Ghana. His discussion around religion not being separated, and how ‘gods, spirits and ancestors’ are very much here made me think about the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertos. Although I am, and was raised, atheist, this idea resonated with me. Photographic practice is often closely tied with elements of grief, and the references shown in lectures and tutorials often include work around death and loss. Our degree show opened last week, featuring Good Grief, a project by Maisie Lopez – ‘that explores the taboo feeling of relief experienced by Lopez following her father’s death in 2023.’ And I hadn’t really thought about how important our relationship with death would be in relation to our religious beliefs. (Probably a particularly atheist way of thinking…)
It is really important to think about the intersectional factors of identity; religion, gender and race within a classroom and university context, which is broken down in Trinity University’s ‘Challenging Race, Religion and Stereotypes’2 where Simran Jeet Singh seeks to show that their are multiple different ways of looking at everything, through our own experiences and perspectives, and pinpoints that we MUST come to the learning environment with empathy, showcasing a human element to allow us to engage with difference in a constructive way. I thought this was a really interesting dissection of how political, religious and personal views should be harnessed within a university context where it is important to remain neutral. I think Singh’s point about argumentation is vital, students must understand how people mobilise arguments for propaganda and fear mongering, whilst garnering political power.
Jaclyn Rekis’ ‘Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account’3 notes that universities lean towards secularism, an idea of ‘rejecting religion’ that should be more about being neutral and withholding space for those who are ‘non religious’ too – it’s hard to think of a large institution like UAL, with 1000’s of students from a wide range of diverse backgrounds, able to ‘reject’ a part of a student’s identity. These aspects of identity are intersectional, and ‘religious identity is often racialised: Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims are all visible racial and religious minorities’. These are intertwined from a ‘white christian world view’ with a ‘negative identity prejudice’ – for example, Muslim women in the contemporary West are intwined with ‘narratives of forced marriage, gender violence, veiling’ which are amplified by an exclusion of muslim women’s voices – excluded from secular and political spheres’ It made me think of Mona Chalabi’s illustrations4, a New York based data journalist who has created a hijabi character for Ramy Youssef and Pam Brady’s tv show #1 Happy Family USA, discussing in the screenshots from her instagram, her considerations around movement of fabric, shape of the hijab and how the character interacts with it – all really important to document how a person wears it as part of their personal expression, and how it is overall depicted matters, as she shows in the statistics in the last slide ‘people who are visibly Muslim are the first to be targeted by Islamophobia’.
Dr Haifaa Jawad talks specifically about access to physical education and activity for Muslim women and girls in ‘Islam, Women and Sport: The Case of Visible Muslim Women’5 echoing the early ideas around negative identity prejudice, how ‘the increased visibility of Islam in the West has been demonised through the messages propagated by the media, spreading and popularising particular worldviews, including extremist derogatory views which are not only offensive to many Muslims and non-Muslims but are also fuelling Islamophobia, impacting upon the lives of all Muslims, especially Muslim women globally.’ Jawad highlights that this polarisation, is often ‘based on lack of knowledge and understanding about each other’s lives.’ University, socially, is designed to be a melting pot of ‘diversity’ (whether that is actually true could be debated), and therefore the student experience should mean you meet, converse, learn and thrive amongst students who are entirely different to you. As Jawad notes this type of ‘two-way learning process is vital’ particularly in the context of Islam and the West, as ‘damaging stereotypes…exacerbated by media hype, can be equally misunderstood and misused. As Islamophobia against visible Muslims increases, Muslim women bear a great deal of the impact.’
I think about intersectionality within religion and faith in terms of my own teaching practice as mainly being situated socially, and within the references shown and examples given. I maintain a safe, neutral and inclusive environment, and want everyone’s experiences to feel considered and seen, I think about this a lot coming from a secular non religious background, it’s sometimes hard to imagine how important someones religion must be to the fabric of their being, if you have ‘none’, hence I think the term ‘non-religious’ is more important.
- Appiah, K (2014) Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question) TED linked here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY [Accessed 13th May 2025] ↩︎
- Singh, S (2016) Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in Classroom, Trinity University linked here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAOKTo_DOk [Accessed 13th May 2025] ↩︎
- Rekis, J (2023) Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice:
An Intersectional Account, pp. 779–800 Cambridge University Press. ↩︎ - Chalabi, M (2025) instagram account @monachalabi [Accessed 15th May 2025] ↩︎
- Jawad, H (2022) Islam, Women and Sport: The Case of Visible Muslim Women, LSE linked here:
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/09/islam-women-and-sport-the-case-of-visible-muslim-women/ [Accessed 19th May 2025] ↩︎
Hi Cora, thank you for sharing your reflections. I found your connection between Appiah’s talk and the cultural dimensions of grief really insightful. Your example of Maisie Lopez’s project was a strong example of how belief and identity can intersect in subtle ways through creative practice. I also appreciated your reference to Mona Chalabi’s work and how it explored the visual expression of religious identity. While my own approach to the topic focused on secular neutrality and adopted a more critical stance towards some of the resources, I found it valuable to read how you examined the theme through visibility, empathy, and expression. Many of your thoughts resonated with me as well. It seems we each explored overlapping but distinct aspects of these subjects, and your perspective on how personal and cultural narratives around religion can take shape in the classroom and beyond raised valuable points for reflection. Your emphasis on understanding rather than assumption feels especially important in current teaching contexts.
Hi Ece,
Thank you for your comment – I also really enjoyed your blog post and the way we approached these resources differently has helped me reflect a lot on my own interpretation and expression. I’m glad you picked up on the cultural dimensions of grief, as it is something that I hadn’t particularly focused on within a religious context before. I like that you thought I led my blog post through empathy and understanding, maybe it’s due to my atheist roots, I felt I needed to try to understand from a religious standpoint, whereas I share your criticisms. I love that I was able to feature Mona Chalabi, I’ve been a fan of her work for years – and particularly loved her work above, especially when I sat next to a lady on the bus this weekend who put her phone in her hijab just like the illustration, a particularly genius technique!
All the best,
Cora
Hi Cora,
I really enjoyed reading your reflections. Its interesting how you made a connection to ‘dia de los Muertos’, because for some reason when I was watching Kwame Appiah’s video I thought of Afro Colombia traditions of “plañideras de velrio” from Afro-Colombian traditions of rituals around funerals, and women who were hired to cry for days in funerals ( I lived in Colombia for 10yrs). Somewhat diverted from Kwame’s point to a certain extent, but my mind went to afro Colombian traditions where African faith, over time, has intertwined with elements of catholism from the footprints of Colonialism and the slave trade etc.
Thank you for sharing the work of Mona Chalabi, I had to google happy family and the character to find out more, which has made me want to see the series, and when linking to what I keep think about: representation in performance, it’s a great reference. It made me think of a comedian, who has a show on Netflix, “Mo”, who makes reference to his faith , as a Muslim, as well as his process of asylum and other intersectional elements of his minority status through (ingenious in my opinion) comedy.
I think you make a really good point about 1000’s of students across UAL, and how there is potential for students to ‘reject’ a part of students identity. This aligns with my reflections around, how much space is there within the units to encompass religious or spiritual identity? This also lead me on the path (again) of representation within performance.
Thanks for your work, `I enjoyed reading it.
Thanks for your comment Catherine, I found it really interesting what we both took from Appiah’s talk, ‘plañideras de velrio’ is fascinating with its links to Ancient Egypt aswell. Thank you for referencing Mo Amer’s show ‘Mo’ which I really enjoyed and, like you, thought his approach to comedy through an intersectional lens was brilliant. I think you are right there isn’t much space within units to entirely encompass religious and spiritual identity, and to be able to reflect on that as a cohort, which I feel like students and staff would really benefit from. Thanks again, look forward to reading yours!
Cora