Towards an anti-racist Fine Art Ph.D.: ‘Anti-racism productive antagonisms’ (ARPA) for the supervisor, student and examiner

Tan, Kai Syng ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4491-7166 (2021) Towards an anti-racist Fine Art Ph.D.: ‘Anti-racism productive antagonisms’ (ARPA) for the supervisor, student and examiner. Art, Design and Communication in Higher Education, 20 (1). pp. 49-63. ISSN 1474-273X

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Abstract

This article outlines three actions for the supervisor, student and examiner to introduce a level of anti-racist consciousness in the journey of the Fine Art Ph.D. The steps are intended as ‘warm-ups’ within and towards more comprehensive, longer term strategies for individuals, departments, faculties and universities, to nurture communities of anti-racist researchers and make UK HE anti-racist. Change takes time, negotiations are unfolding and my brushstrokes are broad. But if the heart of any Ph.D. endeavour is about the development of critical insight, not just by the student into a knowledge area or problem, but about their own position as autonomous researchers, not just within their fields but the wider HE sector and beyond, an actively anti-racist agenda must be integral. I wish to critique my own position as a non-White researcher who has signed up to the neo-liberal, ‘post-race’ university. I welcome feedback, and seek to lay the ground for further work by myself and others. This is my call for researchers in Fine Art and UK HE at large to step up.