Whose Uni? poster reflects on belonging, decolonisation and community

The poster was created following activities with undergraduate students at the University of Leeds who felt underrepresented. It's designed to be a learning tool for educators and activists.

‘Whose Uni?’ poster is a collaborative visual project by Dr Laura Loyola-Hernández, artist nicole marie burton and Petroglyph Studios.

The poster is an outcome of the Lite project Community-led pedagogies to diversifying the curriculum. It hopes to serve as a pedagogical tool to reflect on important conversations between staff, students and people beyond the university on sense of belonging, climate change, decolonisation and community building.

The experience generates non-hierarchical conversations between those present in ways in which traditional lectures, seminars and tutorials cannot.

This project contributes to the continued struggles to improve the sense of belonging and community for staff and students (especially those from marginalised and underrepresented backgrounds) in Higher Education Institutions.

 

You can download a high-definition copy of the poster on the project page.

If you would like a hard copy of the poster please email Dr. Laura Loyola-Hernández at l.t.loyolahernandez@leeds.ac.uk.

Alternative text

The poster shows a long picnic blanket on the grass in front of a University building. Students and staff are sitting on and standing around the blanket, including somebody sitting in a wheelchair. They are sharing many kinds of food and water. Some people are walking or cycling. There are bags, activist signs, leaflets and musical instruments around too.

Their speech bubbles read as follows:

Is there room for students like us here?
It’s nice feeling like I can be myself for once and be around people who know my name.
I know what you mean like, I’m spending a ton to be here, then I’m supposed to be a product, too! “The good student” in all of these ways… can feel pretty transactional day after day, yea?
When was the last time you hydrated?!
HAHA, you got me… I haven’t had any water all day…
Some days, I just feel so out of place here…
Yea sometimes it feels like people can’t understand me - am I too complicated?
I don’t know what I would do without you guys keeping me grounded! TBH I’m so grateful.
Hey, you go to the climate talk? 
No mate, I had to work. I’ve had to pick up more shifts lately…
I heard there were good chats between activists and students… What did u think?
IDK like, we’re taught about climate change - but then we have fossil fuel companies come to career fairs because those are “good jobs”?
Right, it’s like ‘be critical… but not too much!’
The neoliberal uni… so full of contradictions.
I can’t even think on an empty stomach!
Same, and I just can’t afford quality food on campus for all my meals…
I love that everyone brought something from home to share! I’d never had tamales before… so good!
Thanks! It’s my grandma’s recipe…
We should do this more often!
So how did your assessment go? I remember you were super stressed about it.
I don’t know! I’m hoping I do well… to tell you the truth, I think I learn more in our get-togethers than I do in exams!
Aw thx for picking up info from the climate talk 4 me…
I wanted to get involved in the sustainability campaign but I’ve been so stressed about my classes.
Oh! Are we all eating together today?

Text at the bottom of the poster reads:

This work of collaborative visual research was produced by Dr. Laura Loyola-Hernández Art by nicole marie burton & Petroglyph Studios.

Whose uni? Was made possible through funding from the LITE Fellowship at the University of Leeds.

This work is licensed under a creative commons attribution noncommercial, noderivatives, 4.0 international license.