I critically analyse the four videos with a focus on disability and apply the learnings to my teaching practice. I discuss the videos within the emerging themes of intersectionality, positionality, and social model of disability.
Intersectionality
Crenshaw defines ‘intersectionality’ as the phenomenon in which minoritised people are often ‘multiply-burdened’ and whose situations cannot be understood as consequences of ‘discrete sources of discrimination’ (1989, p 140). This can be seen within videos 2: Adepitan’s identity as a Black disabled athlete; 3: Sun Kim’s identity as a deaf artist and a mother; and 4: Brown’s identity as trans, gay, with mental health difficulties. Sun Kim underscores the importance of government support in Germany, which made me consider systemic discrimination. We as a British academic institution often grade student work in written English-language assessments, putting some of our disabled and international students at a disadvantage. However, Awarding Gaps at UAL indicate that disabled UG students receive higher grades than the non-disabled students:
This indicates that Disability Support and ISAs may be helping our disabled students and invites deeper investigation. But the written English-language assessment could be a factor in the Awarding Gaps for UG international students:
In my teaching practice and Assessment Briefs, I emphasise clarity of meaning instead of grammatical perfection [also postcolonial concerns around whose grammar, whose English? (Misra 2020)], even within writing-focused units.
Positionality
Positionality statements are the expression of one’s position in relation to another (Merriam et al 2001, p 411, cited in Bayeck 2022, p 1). Thus, positionality is relative – and in the case of the ‘institutional whiteness’ (Ahmed 2012, p 33, cited in Lukkien et al 2024, p 5) of British academia, the identity being centred is white, cis, hetero, male, non-disabled, wealthy. It thus makes sense that – as a Black woman herself – Crenshaw’s starting point of examining intersectionality was Black women. Her research starts from within, but Crenshaw extends the application of intersectionality to other factors such as class and sexuality (1991, p 1245). This extension is highlighted in videos 2: Adepitan being a man but facing discrimination for being Black and disabled; 3: Sun Kim being an Asian woman – not Black – but facing challenges due to deafness; and 4: Brown clearly expressing his positionality as a trans, gay man with mental health difficulties. He interestingly notes areas of privilege (white, cis male ‘passing’, ‘hidden’ disability), emphasising complexities of identity politics. While there are tensions between positionality statements in classrooms and encouraging open dialogue, communicating positionality can encourage empathy. As a non-disabled person, if I ask my disabled students how I can better support them and am open to learn, perhaps the students would appreciate that intention.
Social Model of Disability
This Model states that disability does not come from within but the organisation of the world makes some of us dis-abled to use it. This concept is exemplified in a video (2008) reimagining the world being made for some disabled people to others’ determinant. The Model can also be seen in videos 1: ‘Course is assessed in a way that doesn’t have me in mind’; and 2: ‘What makes people disabled is not their disability […] it’s society, society that holds us back. It’s that systemic discrimination and oppression.’ Inklusion Guide (Dundas and Farrell 2022) shares recommendations to make physical spaces more accessible, such as having quiet rooms and using particular typefaces (also recommended in UAL Branded templates). In a programme meeting on 9 July, I kept all these ideas in mind to explore assessment forms for different learning needs. For instance, oral presentations may suit students with dyslexia or ADHD, but having written forms may suit those with social anxiety. But we tutors do not want to come from a space of assumptions, and we thus invited a panel of graduates to get their inputs in revalidating our courses.
References
‘A world made for disabilities’ (2008). YouTube. 20 January. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsuKxY_9f_8 (Accessed 10 July 2025).
Adepitan, A and Webborn, N (2020) ‘Nick Webborn interviews Ade Adepitan’, ParalympicsGB Legends [Online]. YouTube. 27 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnRjdol_j0c (Accessed 10 July 2025).
Ahmed, S (2012) On Being Included. Duke University Press.
Bayeck, R Y (2022) ‘Positionality: The Interplay of Space, Context and Identity’, International Journal of Qualitative Methods 21, pp 1-9. DOI: 10.1177/16094069221114745.
Brown, C (2023) ‘Intersectionality in Focus: Empowering Voices during UK Disability History Month’ [Online]. YouTube. 13 December. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yID8_s5tjc (Accessed 10 July 2025).
Crenshaw, K (1989) ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics’, University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), pp 139-167. Available at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1052&context=uclf (Accessed 10 July 2025).
” (1991) Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color’, Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp 1241-1299. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1229039 (Accessed 10 July 2025).
Dundas, E and Farrell, J (2022) Inklusion Guide. Available at: https://www.inklusionguide.org (Accessed 10 July 2025).
Lukkien, T et al (2024) ‘Addressing the diversity principle–practice gap in Western higher education institutions: A systematic review on intersectionality’, British Educational Research Journal, pp 1-9.
Merriam, S B et al (2011) ‘Power and positionality: Negotiating insider/outsider status within and across cultures’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 20(5), pp 405–416. DOI: 10.1080/02601370120490 (Accessed 10 July 2025).
Misra, S (2020) ‘Sigh-lingual: being a multilingual writer in the UK’, Scottish BPOC Writers Network. Available at: http://scottishbpocwritersnetwork.org/sigh-lingual/ (Accessed 10 July 2025).
Sun Kim, C (2023) ‘Christine Sun Kim in ‘Friends & Strangers’ – Season 11 | Art21’ [Online]. YouTube. 1 November. Available at: https://youtu.be/2NpRaEDlLsI (Accessed 10 July 2025).
UAL Awarding Gaps (2025). Available at: https://dashboards.arts.ac.uk/dashboard/ActiveDashboards/DashboardPage.aspx?dashboardid=c04b6e35-6d26-4db8-9ea0-5e27d30e3402&dashcontextid=638684775887265547 (Accessed 10 July 2025).
UAL Branded Templates (2025). Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/brand/branded-templates (Accessed 10 July 2025).
This is such a coherent and thorough post. I like that you broke down the different definitions, relating them to the videos and readings. Interesting to note Crenshaw’s own positionality as a logical stating point. In relation to the videos, I was also thinking about not just what disadvantages these people, but where possible privilege lies. For example, Adepitan’s male privilege. When Sun Kim discussed motherhood and law in Germany, I also began to think that as you say, government systems do make life harder or easier, but it also made me think about having children and motherhood in relation to privilege and an option not open to everyone. As much of my work is assessment of student essays, I also stress clear communication of ideas rather than commenting on grammar. Good to know this is UAL wide!
Hi Paul, thanks for your thoughtful comments. A lot of my research and academic interests are around postcolonialism, so the IP Workshops made me consider my positionality and why I am attracted to the topics that I am. Of course I am not an outlier in this, so that’s what made me consider Crenshaw’s focus on Black women as a starting point to discuss her theory of intersectionality.
Agreed – many of us are privileged and disprivileged in different ways. The interesting thing is also the relativity. Of course in global power structures, I am disprivileged as a POC, but it never came up in my day-to-day while I was in India. Now when I enter a room, I am aware of the number of POC there alongside me (and academia is heavily white). That must be a concern facing our international students who are POC too, and for some it must be their first time in a predominantly white space. This made me think of Sun Kim’s significance on a shared community (with the pitfall of remaining in an echo chamber – and thus the advantage of interacting with a multicultural and multinational class at university).
It’s definitely heartening to learn that you also emphasise clarity of meaning in assessments! Your reflections in your blog post show your thoughtfulness about these matters in previous actions and also how you can continue growing in the future. I’m excited to hear more about those initiatives 🙂