In terms of positionality, I am from a white, northern, working class background. I went to an all girls secondary comprehensive school (in the North West of the UK, Burnley, a former mining and industrial town) alongside around 60% of us were Muslim girls. This means I grew up with a great deal of respect and understanding for the Islamic religion. I think this has led to me having an ‘us mentality’  ‘See David Locher Stereotypes ref’

‘Why we stereotype others and how we can stop. | David Locher | TEDxMSSU’

towards Muslim women and I always enjoy, and am drawn towards, working together with them and our joint community. 

One example I can think of that references Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality is when I was supporting my Spanish colleague Clara Sancho on her marketing campaign for ‘Light from the Middle East: New Photography, 2012’ at the V&A The visual portrays a very western view of a slick woman in sunglasses and a headscarf, and a fluorescent cool contemporary V&A logo contrasting with a sepia more traditional coloured shot. This clever juxtaposition made you stop and think that both versions of the woman can exist together.

We also worked on the Jameel Prize at the V&A where I collaborated by bringing in specialist paper sourced from the Middle East for one of the exhibits. I am drawn to working on exhibitions that portray faith in an accessible, inclusive way to diverse audiences. This is something I strive to do in my teaching practice and make sure that guest lecturers are from diverse backgrounds as role models for the next generation of intersectional creatives to reverse the trend of negative awarding grades for BAME students in the UAL Stats see image ref A.

The Jameel Prize at the V&A is a live brief I often encourage my students to enter https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/jameel-prize#jameel-prize-poetry-to-politics as part of their practice. This empowers and enables artists to celebrate their Islamic religion and ‘The Prize aims to explore the relationship between contemporary practice and Islamic tradition as part of a wider debate about Islamic culture in the twenty-first century’.

The article ‘Islam, Women and Sport: The Case of Visible Muslim Women’ reminded me a lot of my roots and the school I went to, that I mentioned earlier. Being quite involved in sport in my youth in the 90s it’s great to see womenswear has now evolved to reflect the intersectional interest and uptake in participation in the game for Muslim girls and to be more inclusive for football. However, not all sports have been as embracing of intersectionality and faith. As a swimmer in my youth I know it was harder for my friends as they had to swim in full clothes which was less ergonomic and practical through lack of design consideration. Where this has developed in football it still hasn’t in swimming. A really unfair and shockingly recent ruling from FINA the swimming governing body really disappointed me in my sport when they banned specialist swimming caps ‘soul caps’ for black and African Caribbean swimmers: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57688380 so more awareness and dialogue around the topic of intersectionality and faith would benefit other sports, too.

A recurring theme in women’s football relating to intersectionality I noticed was when My cousin in law Jordan Glover co-wrote with England Lions captain Leah Williamson ‘The Wonder Team and the Forgotten Footballers’. The book is ‘Loosely based on one of Leah Williamson’s big inspirations, the Dick Kerr Ladies and their brave protest against the ban on women’s football.’ This happened when working class factory women from Preston were banned even though they’d been working, like men, during the war and playing internationally. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jun/13/how-the-fa-banned-womens-football-in-1921-and-tried-to-justify-it The book tells the story with the inclusive theme, for children to empower girls of the next generation to take part in the sport.

 “The Wonder Team and the Forgotten Footballers is a fun adventure that comes from the heart. When Leah discovers a mysterious time capsule with her two best friends, she opens up a whole new world of adventure! Transported a hundred years back in time, Leah, George and Mimi make an unexpected discovery – women’s football has been banned!” 

Studying the UAL awarding body data see ref image B has encouraged me to consider faith and inclusivity in my own teaching context. I have been working alongside Laiba who worked on the First Muslim Women’s creative conference, and collective ‘Good Nugget’ where we teach that ‘Creativity is a Universal Language’ she is a showcase for faith and intersectionality to inspire the next year 2 joining the course on what they can achieve; to shine a light on topics they care about and to make the world a more inclusive place.

https://www.dpslcc.com/blog/jess-bishopp-puffling-pkrcx

In my teaching practice on the Diploma in Professional studies (I lecture on the year out programme in industry on the ‘sandwich course’ connecting students with diverse, global work placements across 7 areas of design, from UX, to graphic design, to illustration) Another excellent student called Sharifah Nadira produced ‘Nad Delivers’ and won a D&AD Award for her identity “Creativity is always on the Menu’ 

https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/@sharifahnadira by sharing these success stories of women who have often overcome discrimination against their race and faith and sex we are highlighting this important, positive, perspective.

I worked with Mahnoor, a student from an intersectional team called ‘Light Spectrum’ a DPS collective formed by a group of neurodivergent students on a Selfridges live brief I brought in from a previous job, to explore identity and faith and how this is reflected in a commercial environment. Mahnoor used her own faith and intersectional background as a female, Muslim neurodivergent creative to inspire her design and the prayer room reflected these important values to champion inclusivity in retail. 

A similar project I worked on at Tate in 2017 was to redesign the way finding to, and experience in, the multi faith room, at Tate Britain. By using lived experience to way find to the location we improved access by moving it to a better space, the map to guide people to the space and make it more welcoming and inclusive; rather than feeling like an afterthought (ie we added a sink so people could wash and prayer mats as an example) we needed to be aware of many different religions using the space, so this needed to be sympathetic to all. I often remind students of the importance of creating brand values and that we design to be ‘open to all’ and I will continue to influence critical thinking about inclusive art in my teaching and my practice. 

I hope I can continue to use my own positionality and anti racism, to inspire my students to amplify, or mitigate societal challenges and discrimination through design communication.

1. TEDx Talks. (2021). Why we stereotype others and how we can stop. | David Locher | TEDxMSSU [Video]. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRgHJP_yfTg  [Accessed 26 Jun. 2025].
2. Victoria and Albert Museum. (n.d.). Jameel Prize: Poetry to Politics. [online] Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/jameel-prize#jameel-prize-poetry-to-politics  [Accessed 26 Jun. 2025].
3. BBC Newsbeat. (2021). Soul Cap: Swimming caps for Afro hair ruled out of Olympic Games. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57688380  [Accessed 26 Jun. 2025].
4. Taylor, L. (2022). How the FA banned women’s football in 1921 – and tried to justify it. The Guardian. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jun/13/how-the-fa-banned-womens-football-in-1921-and-tried-to-justify-it [Accessed 26 Jun. 2025].
5. DPSLCC. (n.d.). Jess Bishopp: Puffling. [online] Available at: https://www.dpslcc.com/blog/jess-bishopp-puffling-pkrcx [Accessed 26 Jun. 2025].
6. University of the Arts London. (n.d.). Sharifah Nadira – Nad Delivers. [online] Available at: https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/@sharifahnadira [Accessed 26 Jun. 2025].
7. https://lightspectrum.cargo.site/selfridges-intro
8. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/09/islam-women-and-sport-the-case-of-visible-muslim-women/
9. https://goodnugget.co/