SOLiDi MSCA Innovation Training Network

It is the first day of our final conference “solidarity in diversity: place and practice-based approaches” taking place at the University of Antwerp.

After a welcome and overview provided by Anke De Malsche and Stijn Oosterlynck on how we have de- and re-constructed solidarity, we received an introduction to public pedagogy by Gert Biesta and on institutional change by Magdalena Nowicka.

These presentations provided some food for thought on what these debates mean for solidarity, the concept that brings and holds us together for the coming three days.

In this article Julia expands on researching activism through a critical, feminist, and sensory lens. In trying to bridge academia and activism, educators may encounter methodological concerns such as epistemic privilege, colonial embeddedness, translation and representation, and ethical-political responsibilities. A turn towards critical, feminist, and sensory methodologies may provide answers to these concerns in a way that goes beyond the mere performance of emancipatory and educational intentions.

Solinda Morgillo just published a book review about “Fighting Identity: An Ethnography of Kickboxing in East London” by Amit Singh for the journal “Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power”.

Singh’s book in an interesting study contributing to the studies of ‘race’ and conviviality and the potential of leisure spaces, such as kickboxing gyms, for forming bonds beyond essentialist identity categories. In her review, Solinda reflects on the potential of its contribution to the field in more depth.

At the beginning of the year, the SOLiDi consortium got together (online) for a series of workshops on "interculturalism" organised by Sharon Todd, Gert Biesta and colleagues at Maynooth University and Migrant Teacher Project. Because it is so difficult to define what culture is, we focused on what culture does: We saw that it can be used to classify people and differentiate between “us” and “them”. But it can also be empowering and allow for identification. Based on these different aspects of culture, we discussed: “What would a world without culture look like?” The question sparked an interesting conversation, and not just between us. Linda Sol decided to ask her followers about it on Instagram. See below some questions we discussed and insights we gained.