Critiques
Since 2019, the Teaching + Learning Centre has hosted several conversations about critique practices at ECU. This page compiles approaches, questions and resources drawn from those events to support faculty and staff in creating inclusive, generative critique spaces.
Retooling Critique
In November 2020, researchers Billie Lee and Judith Leeman led a workshop titled Retooling Critique. They proposed ways to make the critique space and process more welcoming and less harmful to racialized students.
Both Lee and Leeman also contributed essays to Beyond Critique: Contemporary Art in Theory, Practice and Instruction (eds. Pamela Fraser and Roger Rothman, 2017), available as an ebook through the ECU Library.
The Room of Silence
The Room of Silence (2016) is a short film created by students at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) about the critique experiences of minority students. Directed by Eloise Sherrid in collaboration with Olivia Stephens, Utē Petit, Chantal Feitosa and the student group Black Artists and Designers, the film is an excellent entry point for discussions with your students about critique practices.
Questions to Consider When Designing a Critique
When developing or facilitating critiques, reflect on the following:
- Who is the critique for and who might be left out of the conversation?
- When are racialized and minoritized students asked to explain or represent their identity — and does this same expectation apply to non-minoritized students?
- How might we be upholding white supremacist or colonial approaches to art-making, cultural production or teaching?
- What practices are validated and what practices are dismissed?
- What biases emerge in our language, sources, framing, responses, assessments or grading?
- How do we balance critique as a space for dialogue and exploration with critique as a tool for assessment?
- If critiques are used for assessment, how can we ensure the process avoids bias and does not contribute to systemic racism in the university?