Festival celebrates co-production between academics and activists
Participants in the Activist-in-Residence Scheme at King’s joined together for a celebration of their projects in 2024-25 on 3 June.
The Activist-in-Residence festival brought together activists and academics from four projects. (Image: sar
Funded by an Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Impact Acceleration Account, the Activist-in-Residence Scheme provided £20,000 in grants for four projects supporting collaboration between researchers and activists to address societal problems. Projects have covered the experiences of individuals with HIV, the power of radical translation, how ideas of home are shaped by movement and the digital world, and the urgent need to address racism.
Some 50 attendees – community activists and staff and students from across King’s and beyond – gathered for interactive workshops and creative activities that shared insights from the projects and that explored the challenges and opportunities of activist-academic work.
As universities up and down the country re/discover their civic purpose, activist-in-residence schemes are gaining traction. The Faculty of Arts & Humanities has been at the forefront of this work, collaborating closely with diverse community activists on a range of social justice-oriented issues. Our Festival provided a space to reflect on, share, and celebrate the inspirational achievements of our activist-academic collaborations.
Dr Edward Stevens, Impact & Knowledge Exchange Manager
The festival began with collective crafting and storytelling led by Charity Nyirenda from Positively UK and Dr Katharine Low, Senior Lecturer in Performance and Medical Humanities Education, drawing inspiration from the revolutionary history of banner-making.
Participants co-created smaller segments to feature as part of one large banner as a way of reflecting on their experiences of activism. Their designs were guided by the prompts of Power, Change, Movement, Home and Listening. The completed banner will soon be on display in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities REACH Space.
A journey to reflection
For the second half of the day, attendees could shape their own reflective practice by choosing activities relating to the four projects.
Rebel by Default, led by Dr Katharine Low and Dr Ella Parry-Davies, Lecturer in Theatre, Performance and Critical Theory, was co-created with Charity Nyirenda, Michelle Bockor, and Silvia Petretti, alongside other colleagues from Positively UK. The project centred the lived experiences of women living with HIV, using craft and storytelling to explore identity, activism, and care. As part of the festival, participants were invited to build bridges between their individual banner designs, developing them into a larger, unified artwork that responded to themes from the Activist-in-Residence programme.
Reimagining Language Justice through the Art of Translation was a collaborative project led by translator Cristina Viti, with Dr Sanja Perovic Professor of French Literature and Cultural History, and Dr Rosa Mucignat, Reader in Comparative Literature. The project explored how translation can be used as a political and creative tool to challenge linguistic inequality and amplify marginalised voices. At the Activist-in-Residence festival, the team hosted a discussion on the principles and practices of radical translation, focusing on how historical texts can be brought to new life through translation to revitalise contemporary political debate.
The banner created at the Activist-in-Residence festival on 3 June. (Image: Sarah McLaughlin)
Dr Wing-Fai Leung, Reader in Cultural and Media Industries, and Dr Jonathan Gray, Reader in Critical Infrastructure Studies, partnered with movement artist and teacher David Kam on Moving/Homing by kindredpacket – a project centring people of East and Southeast Asian backgrounds and exploring the intersections between home, movement, and digital technologies. Their participatory workshop focused on walking and movement to explore diasporic belonging, collective care, and the embodied meaning of home.
Dr Reza Zia-Ebrahimi, Reader in the History of Nationalism and Race, worked with writers, podcasters and activists Rokhaya Diallo and Grace Ly on Race Across the Channel. This project investigates the discursive strategies used by French and British media and political elites to counter antiracist scholarship and activism. Their workshop confronted Europe's culture of denial by exposing how racism is reinforced across borders, urging collective resistance through transnational antiracist activism and critical reflection on power, silence, and complicity.
The event concluded with final reflections from all projects and attendees and a performance from Cuban guitarists Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas and Eduardo Martín.
Cuban guitarist Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas. (Image: Sarah McLaughlin)
Attendees shared a variety of key takeaways from the festival, including:
