Free School of Critical Feminisms

Goldsmiths 2019

A week-long, tuition-free course exploring applied feminism thought and creative practice.

Co-organized by Llum de Palau and Erin Liu.

Workshop facilitators:

  • Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley
  • Amy De’ath
  • Laurel Uziell
  • Ray Filar
  • Charlotte Grace

Themes include:

  • Relationship/antinomies between feminist praxis and creative praxis.
  • Gender, performance, and re-presentation.
  • Black queer archival practice.
  • Intentional spaces for deep study and multi-disciplinary art-making.
  • Poetry/poetics, gender, and Marxian theory.

«My inspiration for the summer school was twofold. Firstly, I love learning with others. I think that postgraduate study and academia generally can be slightly isolating and so I relish any opportunity to come together with peers to discuss ideas and push and challenge one’s own and each other’s thoughts. So, slightly selfishly, I wanted to create the academic environment that I had always hoped to find. I also think this method of learning with others is particularly pertinent to feminist and critical theory, where knowledge is generated through experience. I felt that there were few existing spaces for such learning. Events of this nature are frequently governed by the market logics of higher education: high fees, large numbers of students and the cult of celebrity. I think that these are all impediments to inclusive learning and undermine the political and truly critical potential of these disciplines.»

– Emily Cousens in 2017