Can teaching with a more diverse range of body reference images help students cultivate an open minded and representative approach to character creation and foster a sense of inclusion?
Posts for assessment are categorised ARP – Assess. For password access please apply to j.curtis@arts.ac.uk.
In broad terms my findings pointed to a positive interaction with the resource ( 71% of comments) and that it had a strong impact on the majority of the participant’s designs (79%, 53% of drawings).
Many participants commented that they thought the selection of models were representative and had inspired them consider different body types for their characters. For example:
“I liked having a reference to draw from and thought it expanded my drawing skills as I probably wouldn’t immediately think to draw from different body types” (Participant A1)
“resources were very diverse! It was really helpful to practice creating designs on different figures” (Participant F3)
“I really enjoyed this task, I don’t usually draw men or motioned characters so this helped me experiment with that and the use of using drawing materials and trying out different techniques” (Participant I3)
For the majority, their drawings were influenced by diverse body types leading to innovations and adaptations of the clothes they designed, pointing to thought processes that considered the needs of different bodies.
This drawing ( Fig 3) is an example of a participant, having made an initial design without the reference, develops a costume and character that incorporates the models’ wheelchair. They keep him dynamic and active, while sensitively thinking through the adaptations ( kneepads, helmets) that a wheelchair user may need
In this example ( Fig4) , the participant has adapted their character to reflect the models figure and skin type , using shading to illustrate her Vitiligo.
Changes to the resource:
Prompted by two of the participants comments ,
” I do feel like the samples steer towards white/Caucasian, but it might just be our class” (Participant C3)
“More of a variety of models and maybe randomize it” ( Participant G1)
which arrived at the same time that I noted on my mural board that :
“I feel that I missing some people that would widen representation here .. I am thinking about actors with Down syndrome, and actors of restricted growth – This is an evolving process that should have student agency as well as being informed by my own practice”(Curtis 2025)
I spent time looking at the resource itself again and other examples of diverse reference collections and asked the following questions:
ACTION – I have started to look at protected characteristics, student and staff input, check lists forum one – and categorisation in other respected resources ( see Mural )
ACTION – Create a Padlet which has all the images to date on it that can be used by everyone to upload images onto
ACTION – Add a note to the Padlet with guidance for selecting images : Full figure, neutral clothing that doesn’t overly change the figure’s essential silhouette, plain background, confident or neutral gaze
Changes to the teaching context :
ACTION – Design a focus group to enable participant consultation on the nature and use of the resource
ACTION – Bring more media into the session as well as asking the participants to bring colour media with them
ACTION – Develop a feedback form and explore other ways more visual ways of giving feedback
Further Next steps
“Develop patterns of Meaning” ( Braun , Clarke 2023)
I have no previous or formal experience of analysing data.I found the guidance offered by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis framework of qualitative data very helpful. Time constraints mean that I have made an initial pass at each stage but would need to approach the data again in more depth to claim real rigour ( Ahmed et al. 2025)
My development of codes and themes has been deductive, semantic and constructionist, that is to say, concerned with the realities of the data, while understanding and trying to acknowledge
“we conceptualise analysis as a situated and interactive process, reflecting both the data, the positionality of the researcher, and the context of the research itself. “. ( Braun , Clarke 2023)
Reading about visual analysis techniques (Jewitt, Van Leeuwen 2004) was very interesting, and with more time, would offer a more in depth way of investigating the students’ responses. However, for this process, I found that guidance more influential in designing the resource ( thinking about how the figures are presented in an equitable way) rather than analysing the participant’s work. I found instead that the idea of finding codes and themes felt more natural to me.
The drawings that the participant’s made were to slightly differing briefs across the two sessions, but the common factor was that each group used the Fair Figure reference library as a catalyst. Therefore, I looked at the drawings from both sessions in one block.
I decided that initially it would be helpful to categorise the drawings in three broad ways, to give me an overview of the impact of the reference. These categories were guided by what degree the development of the student’s character and their costume acknowledged the model’s unique features.
The three categories were:
No impact: These students either produced outcomes that were so abstracted or stylised, the nature of the models body wasn’t discernible
Some impact: For these students the model is discernible and their features have been incorporated into the design but not to a strong degree
Most Impact : These students have explored and been inspired to include and develop their designs in sympathy with their model’s physique
Although in danger of losing some nuance, this initial sorting helped me wrangle the material into a form that I could use to create some broad brush stroke, quantitive data.
I also made notes on specific features of some of the drawings as I sorted through them , trying to notice specific aspects of the resources influence ( or lack of influence) in the work. I had some ideas about this that I would reflect on later when developing the next iteration of this resource.I did this on the mural board as I could zoom in and out, easily resorting the images on my virtual carpet ( I only had a digital record of the drawings). I passed through the drawings two or three times and added comments as I noticed particular elements I thought interesting.
It was helpful to do some of this analysis ( second phase) alongside the drawings, enabling connections to develop between the work and the participant’s reflection on their work. It also also allowed me to see what they reported evidenced in their designs.
I physically sorted the papers into themes – broadly similar responses, and in the process of typing them up, reviewed and considered them again in more depth, noticing specific comments and considering their implications. For example – this comment from a participant led to a re–evaluation of fairness and accountability of the resource itself .
“ I do feel like the samples steer towards white/Caucasian, but it might just be our class”. (Anon 2025)
Once anonymised and uploaded to the mural board I looked across all of the written responses to find a quantifiable bigger picture. I concentrated on the second session as my questions had been consistent across the three groups, whereas the response from the first group in October was more informal and the questions less thought through. The yellow arrows in Fig.5 show a broad Positive/critical/neutral division. This alignes to the phase identified by Braun and Clarke as:
” examining the codes and collated data to begin to develop significant broader patterns of meaning (potential themes)” ( Braun , Clarke 2023)
I then looked at the significance of individual comments and put an eye icon next to ones that I found to resonate and pertinent to the next iteration of the sessions or resource. I was reminded that
“whether something is insightful or important for answering our research questions is not necessarily determined by whether large numbers of people said it.” ( Braun , Clarke 2023)
It feels like there is almost an infinite potential for reflexive analysis as the researcher explores multiple perspectives on the data created. I would be fascinated to know what the participants or my colleagues reading of their own or other’s drawings would be.
Iteration Two – November 14th: 120 minutes – the same session taught three times
LESSON PLAN 4th November DRAWING AND PROTOTYPING TO SCALE Download
Following Kolbe’s reflective model (Kolbe 1984) I reviewed my notes of the first session, and adapted the way I recorded and gathered my data. The way in which I used the resource in the session, as an aid to character visualisation, was very similar.
I spent a little more time explaining the research context. I emphasised the idea that non-participation carried no penalties ( they wouldn’t be judged or miss out on any of the activities and teaching in the session) and that I am researching and learning alongside them. I created a more formal information sheet ( See blog post – Participant facing documents) which was prominently displayed in the room for them to refer to and had more low contrast consent sheets available.
This time, to avoid transcribing a lot of audio, I decided to ask for written feedback, hoping it would be easier to analyse.Previous experience encouraged me to ask for this in person and on the spot, rather than through digital surveys, to ensure maximum engagement. I asked all three groups the same simple but open-ended questions :
What did they think of the resource?
Was there anyone missing?
I had printed their consent forms in a way that I hoped would save paper – this didn’t work but left a blank portion on each form, so I improvised and asked them to write down their answers there. This way it was easy to link participant to response and drawing, even though I intended to anonymise all the content. Having written feedback did make it a lot easier to analyse and identify themes within the responses – next time I would complement this with a few yes/no questions to capture any potential change in their attitudes before and after the session.
This process was conducted in the same way as before, with me walking around as the participants worked taking images of them as they interacted with the resource. It helped to remind me what media the participants had available to them and gave me a sense of the focus they the resource while drawing ( for example, the students here either have the image in front of them in their eye-line while they are drawing, or covered over by other papers ( Fig 3 )
This time I decided to draw while the participants drew to place myself alongside them (this is something I have done before to emphasise a continuum or community of practice). I hoped this would in some way
” seek to disrupt traditional power relations between researchers and the researched by locating knowledge generation at the local level” ( Loyd – Evans 2023)
I played music relevant to the context of the session to create a relaxed atmosphere and hoped that my working alongside them would make it feel less like I was walking around peering over their shoulders, though I was still available for consultation and to encourage them as they worked.
This process was conducted in the same way as before. In this session the catalyst for drawing was an “emotion word” picked at random that the participants embodied in a character. As this session was tighter on time and the drawings in a slightly different context, my photographs were less well considered than before. It is hard to maintain your focus when it is split between your role as researcher and your role as a teacher! I would consider drafting in a colleague to observe the sessions.
Next time I would standardise my recording of the students drawings across all the workshops – we are used to taking ad hoc images of the students work in lessons, and I defaulted to that way of working rather than having a more formal set up – eg. The same background and view point: this is something I would do next time to equalise external factors that aren’t relevant to analysis. I could not collect the drawings themselves as the students needed them to present for assessment.
It seemed natural to me, as a designer, collaborator and educator, that my research needed to be active, productive and include participants. This is partly because I felt my intervention needed to be tested by, reflected on and rebuilt with the students and staff who might use it if it was to be effective. It turns out that this is Participatory Action Research
” an approach to research that prioritises the value of experiential knowledge for tackling problems caused by unequal and harmful social systems, and for envisioning and implementing alternatives. PAR involves the participation and leadership of those people experiencing issues, who take action to produce emancipatory social change” ( Cornish, F., Breton, N., Moreno-Tabarez, U. et al. 2023)
Having gone through this process I still feel very much a work in progress as a researcher, developing an understanding of the pitfalls around this way of working ( mainly by falling into them). As Caroline Lenette observes:
” there is no point in producing research that has no bearing whatsoever on the lives of people at the centre of the research, or that is not based on the perspectives and the needs that are identified by co-researchers, in my view. ” ( Lenette 2024)
This post describes and reflects on the methods I used throughout my process to gain insight and feedback from my generous and patient participants, who I owe a big debt of gratitude to.
INTERVIEW WITH ALEX BULMER : 14th November 2025
” yeah, the ..how hard it is to imagine yourself doing something in a role if you have never witnessed it, experienced it , you know, which is another reason why representation is so important.. its much easier to imagine becoming something if you have seen it exist already” (Bulmer 2025)
Alex is a writer, director and performer who is named one of the most influential disabled artists by UK’s Power Magazine.They have over thirty professional years’ experience across theatre, film, radio and education and I was lucky enough to work with them in a production of “Don’t Look Now” in 2025. You can find out more about them HERE. It was key for me that I would be able to consult with someone who had lived experience of disability in performance. I wanted to know whether Alex saw a need increased representation and therefore this kind of intervention, and had any thoughts on the ways that our students might best work with actors who are disabled.
We met on zoom after an email exchange which established consent and contained the information sheet and questions ( see blog post ARP – Participant facing Documents) . I invited them to add any questions, which they did. The intention was to have a collaborative,free-ranging discussion that allowed other thoughts and questions to arise without trespassing to much on Alex’s time. Zoom’s time limit helped with that and I could also record the meeting within the platform.
The interview itself proceeded well, though I realise on reflection that I had a preconceived sense of what I was hoping to hear. In fact, the conversation inspired thoughts about future sessions with Alex talking directly to the students about their experience with designers
” think about how clothing can impact a person’s mobility, how clothing can get caught in a wheel of a wheel chair, um, but I think asking and seeing if you can set up conversations.. early is the number one – I think that’s your number one best practice..” ( Bulmer 2025)
and the need for UAL to acknowledge potential barriers to training for people with disabilities.
” I can’t help but wonder why are there so few disabled people in the programme or in the discipline and can that question start to be asked and really seriously you know, dug into .. um ..because there’s probably a whole lot of reasons including hidden barriers, systemic barriers, maybe not so hidden” ( Bulmer 2025)
Ultimately, my questions led to an interesting conversation that we both enjoyed very much. However, they were not focussed enough on my research question to offer more than broad reassurance that my aim was worthwhile. I didn’t want to ask leading questions, but think I ended up over compensating! It did however, reinforce for me the need for better representation in general and at UAL and ongoing discussions with actors with disabilities for which our students should prepare. The resource could be a starting point for this process. Alex signed off with this email:
“I’d welcome an opportunity to come in, funding dependent, thank you. First step for better representation and inclusion of Disabled students/people is to lift the lid and start talking with us. You just did that! Bravo“ ( Bulmer 2025)
On starting to analyse the exchange in more detail, I realised that I had not recorded a transcription, despite trying to learn from my first workshop ( details below) . I ended up writing up the audio as I went. Although this was time consuming, it did mean that I listened very carefully! In future, it would be interesting to decode physical cue’s from the video, and I would consult more widely on the questions. It would also be interesting to contrast this experience with an in-person exchange. The timing of this interview wasn’t quite where I hoped it would be, earlier in the process, due to Alex’s availability
WORKSHOPS
My intention is to create a resource that can be used as part of any workshop or lesson, including those where inclusion is not necessarily the focus of the whole session. My ambition is that this kind if material becomes the default, normalising the use of diverse reference rather than limiting its use to lessons labelled inclusive. I planned to road test it within two scheduled sessions with 1st year BA students who I teach regularly on the Costume for Performance course, to gather feedback from the students. All participants signed consent forms after reading the information sheet and discussing the research and it’s purpose with me.
Iteration one – October 14th, 2025
In this workshop the aim of the session was to look at character creation, working with a garment of their own as a catalyst. After a process of personifying their garment in different ways (through peer interactions and free writing) the students made drawings of their garment as a character, firstly with no reference and then secondly using a fair figure reference library model as their performer. We then gathered together and we discussed the two interpretations, and I recorded audio of the conversation.
I felt that I was in danger of leading the discussion and it was difficult to know how far I could encourage response as they were initially reluctant to speak. I was particularly aware of the potential for participant bias ( Nikolopoulou 2022) ) to operate in this situation. I hoped to mitigate that to some degree as I am quite familiar with this group, and although clear about all aspects of data collection I tried to choose methods that felt low-key and reflected our normal exchanges.
Using my phone, I recorded our discussion with the video function ( camera pointed at the ceiling) as in pressure of the classroom I forgot how to record voice memo’s! I would definitely use a different platform for recording next time that guaranteed a higher quality of audio. I might consider asking the student to speak into a microphone but at the time I felt that would make them self-conscious. I also had the some challenges around transcribing what was said. I played the piece through a TEAMS meeting with the live transcribe facility, but the accuracy of word capture was very patchy particularly on quieter parts of the recording .I reflected on a deaf or blind students experience relying on these tools and having similar struggles. Other apps like Speechify weren’t available on UAL machines so I decided to type it up myself.
While frustrating, this probably made for closer listening and a deeper familiarisation with the material, essential for thematic analysis ( Braun and Clarke 2006) I thought it would make them feel more self aware to video them, but it would have been interesting to record their physical reactions – nods etc.
I initially wanted a basic record of the students interacting with the images but I think that given more time, it would be interesting to use this record to capture the physical interaction that students might have with the images for analysis. This might lead to thoughts on the images tactility or scale, the quality and layout. For example, I am planning to laminate the images which makes them more rigid and better able to be propped up.
As the student’s drawings are the main site of the intervention, these were key artefacts and I decided to record their initial drawings, their reference body and the second outcome so that they might be easily compared.
Draft presentation structure from Mural Board:
You can view this here : https://app.mural.co/t/introductiontodesignforperfo4905/m/introductiontodesignforperfo4905/1758713183458/5fbc41f84201b34654418af54156a48e72387bf9?sender=uad5c45d3249b3bbd713c3198
Notes after sharing this structure: tutorial feedback from Kwame Baah, Jade Gellard, Sarah Harkins and Antonella Nonnis:
This was a very helpful meeting and as ever, I gained a lot from the support of my tutor and group who have been incredibly supportive throughout the course. It particularly struck me that I needed to check through the accessibility of my documentation: I often print a proportion of any documents I use on buff coloured paper, and think carefully about the phrasing and clarity of the language I use, but needed to be sure that I hadn’t missed anything.
Final presentation slides:
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List of Illustrations
ARP – Findings and Reflections
ARP Analysing the Data
ARP Research Methods One
ARP Research Methods Two
ARP Presentations
ARP References
ARP Ethical Action plan, Time Line and Participant facing documents
ARP Rationale: Identifying the Need
ARP Position and Context
I found the writing of an ethical action plan quite a daunting task at a relatively early point in the unit, but the process was invaluable in terms of the focus it gave me. It’s formation was at the heart of our first workshop and the form provided a map that re-enforced some of the preparatory talks we had before the unit started. It also made clear the responsibility we had to our participants and the material they produced ( BERA guidelines 2024)
We had a lot of support from peers and tutors in the session, so once I had completed my form and sent it to my tutor. He replied:
“I have reviewed your ethical plan and I confirm my approval for you to continue your research. In considering some of the comments you received from your peers in the recent tutorial you should have enough to progress your action research…..Your plan is very well structured and the only comment I have for you is to keep your timeline in mind because of your list in point 5 of the ethical plan.”
( Baah 2025)
This last sentence was a useful reminder, and as a result I created a Mural board ( protected by password) – a platform I often use when I am designing for a show. This helped me be mindful of the timescale and the task in hand, and enabled me to organise all the elements of this unit in one main place, visually.
The Mural board I created became fundamental to this project. I have gathered here documents, timelines, reading lists, quotes, plans for my blog and presentations, a running to-do-list, reflective model and images for my resource. This sits alongside my PG Cert notes book and scraps of paper for daily tasks.
This method of planning and organising has helped to coax me into the unit – the writing and recording of which was quite nerve-wracking for me. Having an interesting visual layout reassured me that I had some thoughts, had done some work and helped me to see unexpected connections between elements. I will continue to use this platform to plan my teaching and will share it with the students in classes to complement the use of other digital resources such as Padlet.
” Now the spread of graphical computer technologies is permitting a return to our visual roots with a new balance between hemispheres and ways of thinking – presenting new opportunities for problem solving and big picture thinking.” ( West, T 2004)
Looking back at my plan, I was able to achieve what I set out to do, but I would include a more detailed outline for my reading and writing up – this was the thing I found hardest to schedule! It is still growing as I move into the last phases of the unit – please do have a look at it HERE
This is the information sheet that I emailed to my interviewee, and that I displayed in the classrooms during my November sessions. I also used it as a structure to verbally describe to the participants what my research was about, what they would be interacting with and to ask for their consent. By this point I had begun to think about making these documents more accessible, checking for plain language, using a sans serif font and including a coloured background. There would be more work to do here in terms of access to this document, including editing the content to make it more succinct, providing a digital version that could be translated or read with appropriate support ( such as using Speechify for example).
This is a screenshot of the interview schedule, proposed to actor Alex Bulmer within an email and accompanied by a consent form and the information sheet. They wrote back to suggest another question be added, so the final interview schedule looked like this:
These and the accompanying documents were included in the body of an email as Alex is blind, and has computer software to help speak text. I also offered to read the consent form and information sheet to them, though Alex said that wasn’t necessary, and Alex gave verbal consent ( which was recorded).
“ Not being represented and seeing people who look like you and not seeing relatable stories to yours being told, can leave you feeling like an outsider looking in”
( Shazad 2020)
“Equality, diversity and inclusion are critical to everything we do at University of the Arts London.” (UAL Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report 2024 )
I am a white, female freelance designer for set and costume alongside my part time work as a lecturer at the London College of Fashion at UAL.
My practice informs my teaching and vice-versa, and the idea for this intervention was conceived in the intersection between these two identities. The experiences I have had of working with differently abled actors and in theatres that focus on access inspired me to interrogate my own practice. I have been looking for ways to improve access to, and representation in, my work – including in the research materials and images I use to communicate designs for diverse characters.
Similarly, my department at UAL has been seeking for many years to decolonise its teaching materials and become more representative of our diverse student body. I vividly remember hearing Duna Sabri report on her findings after concluding her 4-year study on the causes that underlie inequality in students’ attainment. She identified a few promising sites of intervention including:
“ engagement with industry as a means of developing practitioner identities and improving attainment particularly for disadvantaged groups.”
And
“Inclusive curriculum: attending to both the substantive content of curricula and to the support of students’ self-directed projects”
( Sabri 2017)
I hope this intervention touches on both of these areas. She also spoke about how crucial it was that students saw themselves represented within teaching materials
“ Recognition is the engine of identity formation (Honneth 1996) and creative arts students’ identities are profoundly intrinsic to their practice.”
( Sabri 2017)
Representation and visibility clearly matter deeply, in terms of our wider culture, the performance industry, our classroom environments and teaching materials.
As costume and make up designers my students will be creating and conceiving the characters that tell our collective stories across a wide range of media. They need to prepare for a multi-cultural industry that should value equal representation and find their practitioner identity in amongst that. Their training environment needs to model best practice, making students of all kinds and backgrounds feel enabled, included and seen.
“Representation in the fictional world signifies social existence; absence means symbolic annihilation.”
( Gerbner, Gross 1976)
It is vital that our students understand how potent their work could be in shaping society, a stated aim in UAL’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report 2024. It hoped that UAL students would be
” be champions of equality, diversity and inclusion wherever they go “ (UAL 2024)
We all have a responsibility to own what power we have to represent diverse voices and uphold anti-racist and inclusive practices that create a fairer more equitable society for all. Recognising our power and the ways we can make a difference can be exhilarating. UAL gained Race Equality Charter Bronze Award in December 2024, which while admirable, shows there is room to improve.
The focus of both courses in our department, the student’s canvas and point of collaboration, is the actor’s body. As we train our students to work equitably, I am frustrated by the logistical and financial constraints we must navigate to bring a range of diverse actors into the classroom. Often, when the actor is not available, designers might use photographs of them as reference to draw from, to keep in mind the reality of the body that will become our characters. By evolving a physical image library of diverse figures for students and staff to use for reference or teaching material, I want to ensure that the images of these bodies we use are as representative as possible.
Can teaching with a diverse range of body reference images help students cultivate an open minded and diverse approach to character creation?
I hope that broader representation in the student’s costume drawings and make-up looks results. I have noticed a predominance of what I would call “fashion bodies”: thin, elongated and predominantly white in students work. A visual default that speaks of a dominant visual culture for bodies that has been written about in many ways and that I would like to disrupt. Drawing and visual communication is central to the design process so if the reference for those drawings is varied and diverse then hopefully it follows that the work will be too.
The fundamental nature of this resource hasn’t changed since its conception as part of the Inclusive Practices Unit. However, the research I have undertaken, and the feedback I have had from my peers, students, colleagues and industry collaborators has presented so many new possibilities as well as a vital awareness of the privilege and tensions in being a practitioner researcher looking for active and equitable participation ( Linette 2024)
These possibilities include:
Hello! My name is Jess and I am a white, cis-gendered, non-disabled 53-year-old woman born in the United Kingdom.
I have a BA in Graphic Design (Illustration) and studied at the Motley Theatre design course to become a freelance Set and Costume designer for theatre, opera and dance. I have been a freelance designer for 28 years in Europe and the United Kingdom and bring my professional experience to my work.
I also teach design practice (part-time) to first- and second-year BA Costume for Design and BA Hair, Make-up and Prosthetics for Performance students at the London College of Fashion, part of the University of the Arts, London. As a lecturer at UAL and a freelance designer I can access the resources I need to conduct my research.
I acknowledge these education systems and structures afford me unearned privilege. As such, I am committed to improving my understanding and practice, guided by people with lived experiences different than my own. I strive to be aware of my own biases and recognise how these may shape my research.
This statement of my position hopes to offer context to my work developing a diverse collection of figure reference images for my department to use in their teaching. It is also important for me to make a relatively formal statement at the beginning of this journal as I have learnt through the time spent working on this course how important personal contextualisation is in academic research.
Developing this statement has helped me, along with feedback from students, colleagues and peers, to interrogate my assumptions and methods of research, look for ways this could become a co-created tool, use it to discuss our unconscious bias, promote communal ownership of the resource, and make transparent what shapes this work.
Initially I found it confronting and uncomfortable to consider my privilege, feeling that it disqualified me from making meaningful innovations as they are uninformed by lived experience. This is a familiar sensation when teaching inclusive practice. However, as Sarah Homan says in her article for the Equality Institute:
“Stating your positionality is an action that demonstrates, publicly, that you are invested in the principles of decolonising research and knowledge production.”
Homan (2025)
When trying to create a resource that is representative, it is easy to become paralysed by a sense of your own inadequacies. I found another comment from Homan’s article, speaking about the work of decolonising, reassuring:
“ in the same ways we need men and boys to engage with gender equality work, I do think it is important that people from coloniser/settler backgrounds like myself, engage in the work of decolonisation in whatever tangible ways are available to them.”
(Harman 2025)
I borrowed from the practice of Christine Sum Kim, whom we were introduced to in our first unit, and began to draw a version of her round charts that would illustrate the various elements of the many identities that I hold and show how they intersect. I have found that drawing things out is a much less daunting way of processing, presenting and unlocking information. I hope that a visual resource such as the Fair Figure reference library also becomes a way for students to recognise some of their identities, potentially beginning a process of positioning themselves.
Fig 2 Visually exploring intersectional identities inspired by Christine Sun Kim ( Curtis 2025)
