Having attended a Catholic primary school, despite being ‘C of E’, meant that I would have to ‘sit out’ while others participated in their holy communion. I didn’t particularly mind. As a child, my experience of religion was that I quite enjoyed the singing, and didn’t feel it had much bearing on my life. And at secondary school, my R.E. lessons gave some idea that there were different ways of doing things. Although omitted what Kwame Appiah offers as a light-hearted aside during his talk: “The internal history of Christianity is largely the history of people killing each other because they believed the wrong thing.” He explains how European travellers from a Christian culture around the time of Columbus viewed religions through the lens of, “What have they got instead of Christianity?” His talk falls just short of pointing out that, ‘in our overwhelmingly dominant white places of teaching and learning’ (Mirza, 2018, p187) reality is a plurality and that looking at ways of being and doing as ‘other’ isn’t usually helpful, considerate, constructive, or conducive to learning.

Though I never identified as religious, I’ve practiced mindfulness for the past seven years and trained to become a mindfulness meditation teacher. Guided by Julian Daizan Skinner and Hogets Baerndal at Imperial College during a space-suit research project, I was drawn to this field from a secular scientific perspective.

Fig.1: UAL Dashboard: Student profiles 23/24

Fig.1. Shows that religious students are in the minority at UAL. The 12.2% who prefer not to say and the and 2.3% unknown, also feel significant as a group who do not wish to disclose. Perhaps simply feeling the institution does not need to know. Or one of many possible explanations is, ‘the ‘disjunction’ between how they see themselves and how they are racially constructed as a ‘female Muslim other’. As students particularly face ‘anti-Islamic hostility in Britain’ (Mirza p186)

The more I learn about Zen and Buddhism, particularly the work of Thich Nhat Hanh, the more I see faith as helpful to health and wellbeing. It follows that I have a certain privilege, in addition to being white and European, in being ‘outside’ the religion, not brought up with it, as I select ideas that feel helpful for me. I must continue to interrogate my evolving relationship with faith engaging with the perspectives of all religions and de-centring my white Christian upbringing in my teaching. As, ‘Non-religious subjects can be epistemically harmed, since they miss out on the ‘intuitive knowledge” (Reki 2023 p782)

Specifically in fashion it is important to acknowledge the intersectional experience of Muslim female students being, ‘stereotyped as either ‘passive or oppressed’’ in relation to clothing. (Mirza 2018 p185) and the negative impact on belonging, learning, and awarding.

Faith can guide people through their lives, give hope, and a sense of peace and community. It is especially unfortunate then that people experience prejudice and discrimination, often based on generalisations of religion. Professor Simran Jeet Singh mentions the, ‘Criminalisation of people based on how they look or what they believe’ and describes how humanity and empathy, ‘allows us to engage with difference in a way that is constructive rather than destructive’. As well as the need to educate on, ‘how methods of fear-mongering contribute to the garnering of political power’. Solidifying my role in helping people navigate the attention economy we live in, where polarisation is advantageous for clicks, views and votes but not for people ourselves.

‘The significance of religious belief in people’s lives should not be underestimated’. (jawad 2022) And in knowing that, ‘Identities intersect to produce different harms for different religious subjects who must constantly negotiate their lives in spaces that are at once secular and shaped by the norms of a dominant religious worldview.’ (P780 Reki) I feel that Faith, mindfulness and ways of being instead of doing, can provide practical methodologies and some of the softness that is the antidote to a damaging ‘hustle culture’.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Appiah, K. A. (2014). Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question). [YouTube video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY. Accessed 03.05.2024.

Daizan, (Skinner Julian) and Baerndal, Hogets (2024), About Our Teachers, Zenways [Online]. Available at https://zenways.org/about-our-teachers/ Accessed 30.05.2024

Reki, J. (2023) Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account. Hypatia 38, pp779–800. Accessed 30.05.2024

Trinity University (2016) Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in the Classroom. [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAOKTo_DOk Accessed 30.05.2024

Mirza, Heidi. (2018). Black Bodies ‘Out of Place’ in Academic Spaces: Gender, Race, Faith and Culture in Post-race Times: Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy. 10.1007/978-3-319-60261-5_10. Accessed 25.05.2024

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/ Accessed 30.05.2024

FIGURES

Figure 1: (2024) UAL data on Student religion: Internal dashboard [Online]. Available at https://dashboards.arts.ac.uk/dashboard/ActiveDashboards/DashboardPage.aspx?dashboardid=5c6bb274-7645-4500-bb75-7e334f68ff24&dashcontextid=638526966971316492 Accessed 30.05.2024