Undisciplined Spaces
Undisciplined Spaces is part of the Impact Acceleration Account granted to the faculty of Arts and Humanities, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The programme is co-produced by the Young Foundation, a sector-leading research institute for community research and social innovation.
Initially open to postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers in the Arts and Humanities, Undisciplined Spaces now involves postgraduate students from across the faculties. Participants are mentored and trained by Young Foundation experts to develop and deliver meaningful community engagement activities, rooted in ongoing Arts and Humanities research. Community engagement means using the training and resources of the academy to address the needs of local communities.
Personal Account
My name’s Scott and I’m a film and philosophy PhD who took part in the 2022-23 iteration of Undisciplined Spaces.
The programme started with Young Foundation training sessions held at King’s Research and Engagement in the Arts, Culture and Humanities (REACH) Space. These were weekly sessions, taking place between January and March, where we were equipped with the knowledge and skills to approach community impact work in an effective and respectful way. In these sessions we were asked to reflect on our roles as researchers, both within the academy and in our local communities. We then formed groups, decided on a community to work with, and began to develop a plan for a fully-funded community engagement activity. It may sound cynical, but full funding means that community partners have the chance to do something they would otherwise be unable to fund through conventional avenues.
The initial training sessions came under the theme ‘Knowledge and Power’. At these sessions, we learned to identify the pitfalls of institutional and community collaborations. We were asked to think about our own positions as researchers, as well as the privileges and power dynamics involved in collaboration between universities and grassroots community groups.
Following the initial training sessions, we attended two events with the programme’s ‘critical friends’: leading figures in London community outreach.
The friends span communities and practices, including Latinx protest action, Black and minority empowerment, and mentoring and training community groups in capacity-building.
At the first critical friends session, we heard directly from these community leaders about their experiences, positive and negative, working with academics. By discussing the dangers of extractive and objectifying practices and strategies for harm reduction, we set a firm standard for how we would approach our community partners: as legitimate hubs of knowledge and skills in their own right.
Having developed a keener understanding of the nuances of community collaboration, we formed our groups. We were asked to identify potential community partners and design an engagement activity that responded to that partner’s needs and priorities. My group settled on an AI art workshop in collaboration with an arts and mental health charity, the Lewisham-based Arts Network. The workshop would be a chance for the Network’s talented members to experiment with the top-of-the-line AI art platform Midjourney.
At the second critical friends session, we presented our project plans. The friends assessed the projects for feasibility, impact, and potential hurdles. Using their feedback, we were able to refine our projects and prepare to put our training and planning into practice.
With the Young Foundation sessions complete, it was time to organize and deliver our engagement activities. This involved a range of work. For our group, we set up twelve Midjourney accounts on twelve laptops, which we sourced from the university. We organized for the workshop to be catered, live-illustrated, and scored by a live musician. We also made sure to keep our community partner in the loop at all times, for both logistical and safeguarding reasons.
Though the activity was completely in our hands, Young Foundation and King’s Impact and Knowledge Exchange staff did remain available throughout the process to support and guide us.
After delivering the activities, teams returned to the REACH Space for a final ‘reflection’ session in the autumn. In this last session, we gave a presentation on the challenges and successes of our projects. We not only evaluated the activities themselves, but the entire programme, reflecting on our training, how we formed our groups, how we identified our community partners, and the overall process of designing and planning the activity.
The reflection session was also a chance to share evaluation materials. These could range from videos and photos to zines and participant feedback. For my team, it was the perfect chance to show off the incredible AI art the Arts Network members created!
The session closed with a question: how will your activity have a lasting impact? For my group, Undisciplined Spaces was only the start of an ongoing project. In September, we held an exhibition event to showcase the AI art generated at the workshop. We invited the Arts Network (and any friends and family), Young Foundation and King’s staff, and our fellow Undisciplined Spaces alumni. It was a wonderful experience, and motivated both my group and the Arts Network to pursue further collaboration. Since then, we have secured funding to run a series of workshops for the Arts Network and a second charity, Rethink Mental Illness. This will again be capped by an exhibition event, though much larger and more ambitious.
As a postgraduate researcher, so much of my time is spent alone, in front of a screen, working on a very abstract level. It’s not only very easy to become alienated from concerns on the ground, but to get wrapped up in your own internal conversations. When I don’t know where to take my project next or run into a hurdle, I really only have myself to draw on.
Interdisciplinary and community collaboration is the polar opposite. You are out in the world, face-to-face with a spectrum of people with varied backgrounds, experiences, knowledgebases, and skillsets. Those conversations you have on your own in solo research are suddenly happening out loud. Problems are solved through dialogue, and by drawing on a wide array of specializations and practices. It was so refreshing to work in a more responsive way: not only to the needs of the community partner, but to the input of my fellow researchers. It was a collaborative, organic approach I had not encountered in academia before.
Undisciplined Spaces gave me a headstart in the changing research environment. Community outreach is no longer a ‘good look’ for the university: it’s a very real priority. Not only that, but I saw first-hand how the project makes the resources of the academy far more accessible to local community groups and organizations. Charities should not be approaching monolithic institutions with their hats in their hands. Instead, research students can play a vital role as ambassadors for the university: taking the initiative to go out into local communities and find out what the institution can offer.