Brookes Learning and Teaching Exhibition and Conference 2021

Empathy and belonging – a community collaboration

Rachel Barbaresi and Amy Harris, Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment
Co-exhibitors: Imani Jervier (student) | Donette Victor (student) | Foundation Art & Design students

Our exhibit will bring together material from a project with students around themes of race, migration and belonging in which poets, creatives and friends from our local community shared their stories of migration, race and belonging. Students made hand-sewn responses to the sessions as a creative act of listening during the sessions, and we plan to bring these together to create a stitched document of the project. Due to Covid, the activity took place on zoom. Our submission will be put together by two student interns with the project, with contributions from students and community participants alongside visuals of the creative work. We will consider the question of how a project might develop deeper empathy and understanding among students, and as a consequence support a sense of belonging in the University. We will also consider the potential for this synthesis of creative activities with listening to enhance our experience of using Zoom and develop student connection and community.