Brought to you by the Pedagogies for Social justice project at the UoW, DAR (decolonisation and anti-racism) fosters dialogue and learning for social change in HE.
About the event
You are invited to the third gathering of the DAR study group: your modern-day book club that aims to foster the learning and dialogue that is needed in any effort towards social justice in higher education.
This session is dedicated to understanding privilege and, in particular, the importance of recognising our privileges and identifying the situations in which we benefit because of them. Privilege typically refers to the unearned advantages we have because of different aspects of our identity. For instance, being able-bodied, cis-gendered, young, heterosexual, and white or white-passing are all examples of the different characteristics that can afford individuals privilege within certain systems and social situations.
Intersectionality theory is useful for understanding privilege as it highlights that the different elements of our identity overlap and intersect to create our experience of privilege and discrimination. Some individuals face multiple barriers but also hold certain privileges, which compound to create unique challenges. And although we cannot control the amount of privilege we have, we do have some control over how we use our privilege to demonstrate allyship, hence this session will also consider the ways in which our privilege can be used to help others.
Before the session, we encourage you to engage with the following resources as they will guide our discussion:
Rethinking Privilege by Mariam Veiszadeh — YouTube
About DAR
We offer a space that facilitates the analysis and discussion of texts, media and news, in the hope that you will join us as we call these into question, reflect on our own ideas and practices, and stretch our understandings beyond the colonial and racist confines of the academy. The study group is brought to you by the Pedagogies for Social justice project, which is a student-staff partnership at the University of Westminster, hence this invitation extends to all students, academics and staff across the institution.
