In this second blog task you will use Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality to analyse how faith intersects with other identity factors.
Faith is a deeply personal dimension of identity that rarely exists in isolation, yet current social institutions, including UK Higher Education settings, commonly reduce it to a rigid, homogenous classification of different ethnic groups such as BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) in data collection. As explored in Workshops 1B and 2B: Intersectional Identities, alongside relevant resources, a profound tension exists between religious and secular identities within dominant Western culture and values, driven by a failure of institutional religious literacy. When Higher Education spaces look at faith through a single lens, they fail to see how a person’s belief system is inextricably bound to their race, gender, class and religious background. By actively applying Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality, we can unmask how prevailing institutional practices perpetuate disparities in educational outcomes by denying how overlapping identities shape the human condition. Without this nuanced framework and supportive resources, policymakers and educators risk stripping individuals of their complexity, reducing them instead to alienated entities.
This reductive alienation is taken to its logical extreme in Kurt Vonnegut’s 1959 satirical sci-fi novel, The Sirens of Titan. Drawing from his lived experience as a World War II veteran, Vonnegut explores the absurdity of human history and the illusion of free will against a backdrop of space travel and interplanetary conflict. Winston Niles Rumfoord, a god-like figure, manipulates history and constructs “The Church of the Utterly Indifferent” to unify a traumatised human race, noting:
“Any man who would change the World in a significant way must have showmanship, a genial willingness to shed other people’s blood, and a plausible new religion to introduce during the brief period of repentance and horror that usually follows bloodshed.”
Rumfoord utters this line to justify orchestrating a catastrophic war, using the aftermath to introduce a pacifying religion to the repentant masses. Vonnegut presents religion as an elite-engineered tool designed to exploit faith, treating communities as passive vessels while dismissing the innate human need for belonging and meaning-making as a core of religious life.
This raises a critical question: How far removed is this science-fiction scenario from the reality of creedal religion? This elite manipulation mirrors the rigid, Western doctrines that British-Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah critiques in his TED Talk, “Is Religion Good or Bad? This Is a Trick Question.” Appiah argues that evaluating religion as inherently “good” or “bad” is a false premise; religion does not exist in a vacuum, but is instead a fluid social construct. When a faith tradition is stripped of its everyday practice, charity, community, and meaning-making—and reduced strictly to a rigid creed—it can produce terrible harm, including systemic violence and oppression.
To counteract authoritarian, organised systems of belief and enforced fidelity, Appiah uses the Asante akrafokonmu (soul discs) to convey that religion is something deeply personal, a lived physical practice, and fundamentally an interpretive, embodied experience rather than a static creed dictated from above. The akrafokonmu is not a mere prop used to express an abstract theological idea about the king’s soul; rather, it represents the sense of belonging to the Asante kingdom as integral to both the spiritual world and the Asante social order. This aligns with anthropologist Daniel Miller’s arguments in his book, Stuff (2010) that “things make people as much as people make things.” Miller posits that humanity is inherently articulated through material culture; objects are not detached, secondary things, but are the very mediums through which humans express their connection to the world and construct social reality (Miller, 2010). Thus, human beings naturally project their inner landscapes into physical artifacts—whether traditional Asante akrafokonmu (soul discs) or modern garments like headcoverings, the turban and hijab—to anchor their place within a community.
While the turban and hijab provide deep community belonging (Appiah, 2014; Miller, 2010), Jaclyn Rekis (2023) highlights a darker dimension: epistemic injustice. When the dominant culture views public material displays of faith, it often harms individuals by reducing complex identities into flat stereotypes. The object is no longer allowed to speak its true language; instead, the dominant system misinterprets the wearer’s lived experience.
This dynamic is illuminated by turban-wearing scholar Dr Simran Jeet Singh (Trinity University, 2016). His material faith marker renders him hypervisible to secular prejudices, yet he actively uses the classroom to challenge these frameworks through empathy. This mirrors the experiences of visible Muslim women in sport (Jawad, 2022), where material garments force a constant, active reclamation of restrictive public spaces. By entering secular classrooms and sports courts with their material faith markers, they disrupt these spaces and force the dominant culture to confront its biases. The garment therefore is transformed from a target of prejudice into a multi-dimensional tool of education and empathy; it becomes a powerful symbol of negotiating a place in the world.
This intersectional negotiation is a daily reality within my specific teaching context as a DPS Placement Tutor for the Diploma in Professional Studies. In this role I facilitate processes related to pre-placement briefings that prepare a diverse student body for their industry year. DPS represents the ultimate liminal state (Meyer & Land, 2005)—a precarious transition zone where students leave the protective, progressive culture of the university to navigate real-world creative sectors.
My pedagogical responsibility here is two-fold: I must act as a pastoral bridge during students` industry immersion, and subsequently scaffold their critical thinking as I respond to student-led reflective journals during their industry year and assess their final placement reports (before they return to the university to complete their final year study). It is through reading these reflections that the hidden curriculum of the creative industries becomes visible.
When UAL’s diverse student body—where over 45% identify as Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic, and 29% practice a religion or faith—enters industry, their faith considerations collide directly with dominant secular norms, systemic barriers, and contradictory social expectations. Wearing a turban or hijab in a high-fashion workplace, or requesting time and private space for prayer during intense project deadlines, are not abstract ideas; they are lived, bodily negotiations of space.
In these fast-paced creative environments, the essence of religious accommodation is rarely an institutional given, but rather something that must be actively negotiated by the individual student. This reality was captured profoundly by a student from an ethnically diverse background in their final DPS reflective report, which I evaluated during the assessment cycle:
“My sanctuary in this world is on my prayer mat, and being allowed as much time as I need for prayer breaks is something I am grateful for from all my placements.”
The student’s reflection highlights how a simple material practice (the prayer mat) acts as a physical site of grounding within a secular corporate environment, directly reflecting Miller’s ideas on material culture and sense of belonging. However, the fact that the student expresses gratitude for being “allowed” this time reveals the underlying power dynamic at play: the industry space still views religious accommodation as a transactional favor rather than a fundamental right, highlighting the ongoing epistemic injustice that students must navigate.
This student’s experience demonstrates that while we successfully prepare students for the technical and creative demands of industry, we under-prepare them for the intersectional, bodily realities of navigating secular corporate spaces. However, disrupting systemic power dynamics that are deeply rooted in social institutions and cultural norms comes with clear limitations within my individual teaching context and influence as an educator. Equipping students with the agency to negotiate religious accommodations—such as holy day observances or physical prayer spaces—cannot rest solely on the individual tutor. Effectively addressing these barriers requires structural interventions, such as introducing dedicated sessions on religious literacy and workplace rights under the UK Equality Act 2010. This shift ultimately necessitates the involvement of diverse policymakers who bring lived experience, institutional backing, and empathy.
Reference List
Appiah, K. A. (2014) Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question). Available at: youtube.com
Crenshaw, K. (1991) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color’, Stanford Law Review, 43, pp. 1241–1299. Available
at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1229039?seq=1
Jawad, H. (2022) Islam, Women and Sport: The Case of Visible Muslim Women. LSE Religion and Global Society Blog. Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/09/islam-women-and-sport-the-case-of-visible-muslim-women/
Meyer, J. H. F. and Land, R. (2005) ‘Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning’, Higher Education, pp. 373–388.
Miller, D. (2010) Stuff. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Rekis, J. (2023) ‘Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Approach’, Hypatia, 38(4), pp. 779–800. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/hypatia/article/religious-identity-and-epistemic-injustice-an-intersectional-account/58E22487A151EC6C547B681189AF9BB4
Trinity University (2016) Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in the Classroom. Available at: youtube.com
Vonnegut, K. (1959) The Sirens of Titan. London: Orion Publishing Group.