There is a passage from bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom that I have thought about a lot over the last few months.
I journey with students as they progress in their lives beyond our classroom experience. In many ways, I continue to teach them, even as they become more capable of teaching me. The important lesson that we learn together, the lesson that allows us to move together within and beyond the classroom, is one of mutual engagement.
I’ve taught for the last year as a Visiting Lecturer at City, University of London. When I was first contacted about the role, I was feeling quite despondent about the state of the media industry. It was just a few months after gal-dem’s demise and I wasn’t sure I had the kind of optimistic tone that a seminar room full of writers at the start of their careers required.
Was it responsible to encourage young people to enter an industry so precarious, with gal-dem’s closure such a recent and clear example of that? Was it appropriate to share how no-one I know is working as a full time freelance journalist because the rates-to-labour ratio is so atrocious? Was it fair to reveal a little of my own cynicism, that British media is still extremely clique-y, snobbish and elitist?
Over the last year, I have thought about these questions a lot, considering how to tread the delicate line between encouragement and realism; hopefulness and pragmatism. I don’t know if I have always gotten it right — I likely haven’t at times. But I have always tried to be honest about the experiences I’ve had, the things I would have done differently, and the things I’ve accepted were out of my control, even if they did not feel that way at the time, with the hope that this may be useful for someone else considering a similar path.
I think the responsibility to share these realities must be balanced with the responsibility to create a space for imagination and for possibilities. This feels like the crux of education’s purpose, to me. Discouraging and dissuading others is an easy task. It doesn’t require too much effort to have its intended impact. What is harder work, but ultimately more rewarding and worthwhile, is encouraging experiments in thinking and doing transgressively, boldly, optimistically in a world where everything else is forcing us to do otherwise.
At heart, I am an optimist. Over the last year, it has taken that journey of mutual engagement that hooks describes with students to uncover what my bitterness had partially buried. It’s been a joy to see them flourish, to see their ideas grow from seed to fruit, to see their confidence build in ways they did not expect at the start of the year. And I take comfort in knowing that an empathetic, kind and talented group of people are going out into the world with a sense of what is meaningful to them, and are feeling prepared to pursue it — whether that is in journalism or not.
I invoked hooks’ guiding principles of engaged pedagogy in the interview for my new job, which is as a staff Lecturer in Journalism at City — an interview I thought I’d completely flopped. I am so delighted to be starting this new role, teaching across the undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes. In January, I’ll be designing and delivering a new module on reporting identity and underrepresented communities — an idea I would not have proposed without chatting with students last year about it. I will also be working towards my postgraduate certificate in Academic Practice. This is essentially all about how to become a more effective teacher, and I based my first assignment for this over the summer on hooks’ theories in Teaching to Transgress.
hooks writes a lot about the role of teacher and student being not as clearly delineated as one might traditionally assume. This is so true. The experience of teaching last year also made me realise how much I miss learning and discovering. I wrote here before about how I had my heart set on going to graduate school in the US — a dream of mine for nearly a decade. And yet, plans change.
Alongside teaching at City, I will also be studying for my MA in South East and Pacific Asian Studies at SOAS part time. I’m mega excited to be connecting and engaging with my home region on a deeper level, to learn and research fascinating topics I would never have made time for otherwise, and to meet people from all different walks of life. The energy there has been the absolute opposite to my undergraduate university (no finance bros with gilets and briefcases!!), and it’s been funny acclimatising to being both teacher and student over the last fortnight, both attending classes and leading them. My ambition is for one role to enhance the other, and I can’t wait to see how this takes shape over the next few years.
It feels really right to be entering this new decade with a new direction and new challenge. But I’m also under no illusion that there is so much that is wrong, hypocritical and violent about universities as institutions, as the last year has shown in multiple ways.
Again, I turn to the words of hooks as the new academic year gets into full swing. Exactly thirty years ago, she wrote:
In retrospect, I see that in the last twenty years I have encountered many folks who say they are committed to freedom and justice for all even though the way they live, the values and habits of being they institutionalize daily, in public and private rituals, help maintain the culture of domination, help create an unfree world.
Depressingly, not much has changed in that overall span of fifty years. But, she urges, persistence through the chaos is deep-rooted, long-sighted, transformational work. I see that work happening all the time — take the example of student encampments in London alone, at SOAS, City, LSE and more. I hope I too can contribute, in my own way, through the time I spend in classrooms, both as teacher and student — listening and observing, acting and transgressing.
Three Leaves
I have had a really gorgeous time celebrating my birthday, in different time zones and with different loved ones. Thank you so much to everyone who has made it the best birthday yet.
Another leaf I wanted to share with you from New York — if you live there or you’re visiting between now and February 2025, you must go to the Edges of Ailey exhibit at the Whitney. It’s a stunning mixed-media exhibition exploring the life and work of legendary artist and choreographer Alvin Ailey, bringing together works from his contemporaries, personal ephemera and objects of inspiration as well as new artworks. I could have easily spent a full day there.
And I loved this poem, written by Ono No Komachi, who was a poet in 9th century Japan. Perfect October feelings.
And updates from me
Alongside teaching and studying, I’ll still be continuing work on projects and storytelling that feels purposeful and meaningful at this point in my life / career. Working with The Voice of Domestic Workers is a huge part of this, and this week, members of our Future Voices programme have been sharing their experiences of being migrant domestic workers in a series of new articles. Read their stories here.
In late September, I launched People-Powered Storytelling — a collaborative series that I edited and project managed alongside ten brilliant news and media organisations working with communities in the UK today. I’m super proud of this project and hope that it is a helpful guide for others in the space on how to work deeply and meaningfully with communities to produce stories in lots of different ways. The final contribution to the series was from myself reflecting on the British media industry at large in the 18 months since gal-dem’s closure.
Bit of a lengthy bonus one today! I’ll be back in your inbox in two Tuesdays’ time — until then, take care,
Suyin x