(Re)thinking Pedagogies

(Re)thinking Pedagogies brings together art teachers, tutors and students to discuss the different evolutions in education in France and the UK, examining their different histories and the development of critical pedagogies as means for creative emancipation and future possibilities in art schools.

This event is part of a wider programme on the different forms of pedagogy within higher education in art and design schools for which the Institut Français has set up short trips for students on both sides of the Channel, in partnership with the Villa Arson and the Contemporary Art Practice MA at the RCA.

Guest speakers

Professor Chantal Faust is an artist and writer whose photographic, painting, video and installation works have been exhibited globally. She has contributed book chapters to contemporary art publications, and regularly writes for academic journals, magazines, and exhibition catalogues and is currently writing a book about scanning, touch and the mechanics of vision. Chantal is Professor of Contemporary Art and Head of the MA Contemporary Art Practice at the RCA.

Géraldine Gourbe is a philosopher, critic and curator. She is a specialist in the Southern California art scene, the history of radical pedagogies and inclusive feminism. She has taught philosophy of art at ENSAD, Paris, the University of Metz, Sciences Po Paris, the Beaux-arts of Marseille and Annecy. In 2018, she signed an exhibition at the Villa Arson around the work of Judy Chicago and the West Coast in the 1960s, entitled Los Angeles, the cool years. Since 2015, she has been working on a counter-reading of the history of ideas and art in France from 1947 to 1989 in partnership with the art historian Florence Ostende. This research led to the curation of the first edition of the Dunkirk Triennial of Art and Design, Gigantism.

Dr Susannah Haslam is Tutor (Research) on the RCA's Graduate Diploma in Art & Design. As an interdisciplinary researcher, her practice operates between teaching, writing and organising; research concerns navigate enquiry on the relationship between contemporary education and cultural institutions and infrastructures; queer and critical subjects, pedagogies, practices and environments; tertiary-level educational alternatives and expansions. Prior to joining the RCA, Susannah held teaching positions at London College of Communication, and in the visual cultures department at Goldsmiths.

Sophie Orlando is Associate Professor of History of Art at the Villa Arson School of Art in Nice. She is co-founder of situations post with Katrin Ströbel and she is also leading La surface démange, a research group on critical pedagogies in artistic formations. A large part of her research is dedicated to the fabric of narratives in art history. Amongst her publications: British Black Art, Debates on Western Art History (Dis Voir, 2016) and a monograph of Sonia Boyce, Thoughtful Disobedience, (Presses du Réel, 2017). She is now leading several research projects on critical pedagogies in visual studies, leading to a forthcoming book.