Community Context
Community Co-Investigator, Zanib Rasool, will explore ways in which artistic methodologies can support community led research with a focus on the life trajectories of women from Pakistani heritage backgrounds. She will work with artists and poets to do this and, as Co-Investigator, she will advise on the direction of the research.
Zanib will be capturing the lived experiences of women who left Clifton School in the 1970s. Using the life story approach, and working with South Asian artists and poets, the intention is to represent the emotional and embodied experiences of these women. This will involve producing art work and poetry that captures the women’s life trajectories and raises the aspirations of minority young women who are currently going through the education system.
The project will involve interviews across three generations to help us understand the following: Muslim women’s experiences of education, employment, citizen, family life, culture and religion; how Muslim women negotiate and construct their identities as British citizens; the contribution Muslim women make to British society.
Art can connect family histories, creating a sense of being between generations of the same family: ‘my mother’s story told in a different way’. It gives the deserved recognition to the contribution that migrant communities have made to social, cultural and economic life. Essentially, the arts methodology will help us to make sense of our participants’ lives and how they position themselves in British society. Likewise, it will give a voice to their experiences and brings minority women into the heart of social research.
We will capture individuals’ unique stories across three generations through arts based practice.
