Supervised by Professor Adam Dinham, Professor of Faith & Public Policy and Head of School of Culture and Society, Goldsmiths University, and Nabila Abdel Nabi, Senior Curator, 色控传媒. Supervised from 2020 to 2021 by the late Dr Achim Borchardt-Hume, Director of Exhibitions, 色控传媒.
January 2020 鈥
This AHRC funded doctorate, one of the first to consider contemporary faith and the way it is positioned by major public art and cultural institutions, aims to open dialogue on the potential of 鈥榬eligious literacy鈥 in building new audiences, ways of programming and governance in public cultural institutions. It will question whether art and cultural institutions and sectors are consciously or unconsciously 鈥榮ecular spaces鈥, and who and what ideas and debates may be excluded. It will evaluate the role an institution such as Tate, and other art museums and galleries, can play in considering dialogues on engaging with faith communities, and what new approaches to artistic risk can be found in this exchange.
This Collaborative Doctoral Partnership research will look at this through the way Muslims in Britain are considered by art museums in Britain, particularly contemporary art museums. It interrogates this consideration in looking at the art museum not just within its programming and collection, but also within its framing of audiences and its institutional culture and governance.
What are your hopes for the impact of this research?
Religion and belief, regardless of position, are undeniable in their importance for many individuals and communities in their sense of identity, belonging and motivations for civic engagement. So, it is striking that the dialogue, particularly academic dialogue, within the arts and culture sector has long neglected conversations on how faith communities can be considered by major public art institutions. I hope this research continues to create foundational dialogues on how our public cultural institutions can consider and connect with religion, as a concept and as communities in a deeper way. Bringing new possibilities to programming, artistic risk and what it means to be a public space for all.
About Hassan Vawda
Hassan has worked within public engagement, interpretation and research within the public arts, culture and heritage sectors. In 2017 Hassan was awarded an Aziz Foundation scholarship to develop ideas and trial projects and complete an MA in Anthropology and Community Development (Goldsmiths, University of London) around inclusion/exclusion within the cultural sector and ways of connecting with faith communities. He has previously worked at Tate, INIVA, and the Greater London Authority among others, and has written and contributed papers and articles for a range of journals, publications and programmes across art, heritage, religion and engagement.
Selected publications
Hassan Vawda, 鈥楽piritual Affects Against a Secularist Grid: Rethinking Modernism and Islam/ic Art鈥, Event Report, Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational, 2023, /research/research-centres/hyundai-tate-research-centre-transnational/event-report-rethinking-modern-islamic-art, accessed 11 January 2024.
Hassan Vawda, 鈥樷淎 Deficiency in Lived Divinity鈥 in Framing British Art鈥, British Art News: Newsletter of the British Art Network, April/May 2021, pp.19鈥21, https://issuu.com/paulmelloncentre/docs/ban_newsletter_may_2021__1_, accessed 11 January 2024.
鈥楽cholar-in-Residence: Hassan Vawda, Charleston, SC, Fall 2023鈥, Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts, https://fsa.art/residencies/scholar-in-residence-hassan-vawda/, accessed 11 January 2024.
Hassan Vawda, 鈥権 賲賽is wineglass: the National Trust鈥檚 Powis Castle and the Clive of India Collection鈥, Roots & Routes: Research on Visual Cultures, https://www.roots-routes.org/%D8%AC%D8%A7-%D9%85%D9%90is-wineglass-the-national-trusts-powis-castle-and-the-clive-of-india-collection-by-hassan-vawda/, accessed 11 January 2024.
Hassan Vawda, 鈥楳useums must go further if they want to be seen as 鈥渢emples of the secular鈥濃, Museums Association, published online 1 June 2020, accessed 11 January 2024.
Hassan Vawda, 鈥楢ctivists, Influencers, or Participants?: A Muslim Culture Forum and the London Borough of Culture 2019鈥, The International Journal of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts, vol.16, no.3, pp.17鈥34. doi:10.18848/2326-9960/CGP/v16i03/17-34.