Braver Spaces Agreement
TT INCLUSION AND BRAVER SPACES POLICY
Transart Institute is actively opposing oppression and discrimination in all forms. This living statement remains in process and includes continuous input from students, faculty, and staff.
We value and strive for an environment where diversity and multiplicity are cherished, celebrated, and respected. We understand that differences can manifest in multiple, intersectional ways that include but are not limited to racialisation, ethnicity, age, cultural, educational, and socio-economic backgrounds, gender identity, sexuality, disability and/or neurodiversity.
We recognize that this work will never be complete and that there will always be new lessons to learn. We do not expect this work to be simple or easy and recognize that discomfort and dissatisfaction are at times integral to true and lasting change. Therefore, we intend to work as agents for transformation, listen to and learn from our students, staff, and faculty, acknowledge all of our truths and to be open and responsive to new perspectives and uncomfortable insights. Transart will continue to actively dismantle hierarchies. As a small international school, we have the unique capacity to unmake structures and foster sustainable transformative processes. Within our practices we attend to differences across multiple axes towards undoing discrimination, harassment, and othering to ensure all members of our community are respected. We aim to offer equal opportunities for our members and strive to foster positive and enriching relations between all colleagues.
Transart's intention is and will continue to be to work with students, instructors, and faculty to foster learning and social spaces where power is shared, to explore and celebrate different epistemologies and ontologies so that there is always a plurality of perspectives present.
We are very fortunate to be enriched by the diversity of our students. We actively review faculty diversity to ensure we deliver the most inclusive programs possible. We pledge to honour, bear witness to and support our wonderfully broad community, to acknowledge mistakes and to transform them into opportunities for growth.
We understand our struggles against capitalism, colonialism, heteropatriarchy, ableism, racism, ageism, anti-queer sentiment, and religious discrimination to be intertwined and we strive to move as accomplices with each other and with our communities understanding our movements towards solidarity and resistance as powerfully interwoven, moving together as change makers.
POLICIES
Transart Institute in academic partnership with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) upholds the University’s LJMU Discrimination Policies.
BRAVER SPACES
Braver spaces are learning environments that acknowledge the challenges that students and teachers have when discussing topics around difference and oppression, understanding that these topics impact each of us differently. Continuing with the notion of a ‘Safe Space’ – ‘Braver Spaces’ addresses the struggle of creating a “safe” space (no space can be safe for everyone, what might be safe for some is not for others).
Transart Institute is considering ‘Braver’ Spaces as opening the possibility for collective responsibility and accountability in co-constructing a supportive and non-threatening environment where we foster respect, acceptance, an open mind, and willingness to learn from each other. Braver spaces invent structures to keep their environments freer from oppressive action, behaviour, and language; to care for the mental and physical safety of our community. Braver spaces create the space to recognise the effects of our behaviour on others, our different backgrounds and power dynamics between us. To maintain our braver spaces, we have an evolving list of practices that underpin our community.
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Time is always limited in workshop sessions, and when we come together online, it’s easy to forget that communication functions differently and is sometimes more difficult in virtual spaces, as we have very restricted access to the non-verbal cues and body language which facilitate our interactions when we come together in person. It therefore falls to all of us who are collaborators in this learning process, students, and instructors alike, to be as mindful as we can about how much time there is, and to always try to think about how we can best include and celebrate the contributions of all voices and make space and time for them.
There are many ways of achieving this, but it probably begins with being kind to yourself and to others, and remembering to ask yourself ‘does my contribution best serve the collective momentum and focus of the session?’ In relation to timekeeping, this might be as simple as setting timers or offering reminders of time remaining when multiple people need to present during a session.
Instructors will take primary responsibility for this, but as collaborators in this collective enterprise we can all bring our own attention to this dynamic, and help to ensure that everyone’s voices are heard, valued, and made space for.
Self-awareness
Our actions have an effect on others, no matter what the intention may be. Be aware of this and be responsible for your own actions.
Be Prepared
Being in ‘safe spaces’, self-reflection is instrumental, and posing questions like ‘what does it mean for me to join or be in a space addressing questions and feelings which might be uncomfortable?’ Working on our individual self-reflection can help to appraise ‘the safe’ in ‘safe space’, asking who benefits from these safe spaces? And what are our individual contributions, representations and challenges we are bringing into the space? So, our individual work as self-reflecting agents is key prior to joining a space deemed as ‘safe’.
Give Equal Space
Remain aware that it can be difficult for certain individuals to find space to speak in a group setting. Make an effort to give quiet and less confident people an opportunity to speak. Try to use simple and uncomplicated language. Don’t assume that everyone has the same background of knowledge that you have. Respect the privacy of others. Please do not share identifying details or contact information of others without consent.
Check Your Assumptions
Do not make assumptions about someone else’s identity. Your personal experiences are not necessarily the same as others. Refrain from making generalising statements. Remain aware of any privileges that you bring including but not limited to your class, gender identity, race, ability, or age.
Content Warning
If you plan to discuss something that others may find upsetting, please let others know before doing so. It is important that everyone is aware and ready to discuss difficult topics or have the opportunity to disengage.
Discrimination and Harassment
Discrimination and harassment at Transart will not be tolerated. It is unacceptable to display any oppressive behaviour regarding racism, sexism, classism, gender, sexual orientation, ableism, ageism, or discrimination on a basis of cultural, ethnic, religious, or spiritual beliefs.
Sharing Content
Be mindful about information you share with others outside of the Transart environment. Do not share or publish anything without consent.
Violations
If you, as a Transart community member feel this policy is being or has been violated, please take the following steps: Refer the policy to the group and if there is a continued violation (and if you feel willing and able to), raise the issue with the person in violation and/or as well as your Student Representative (if you prefer not to confront the person in violation). You can also either contact us directly here or fill out the Confidential Issues Form.
USE
1. For facilitators, start all TT sessions with a group reading of the Braver Space Agreement (approximately ten min.)
2. For multi-session events: re-read the Agreement if new members join
conditions broken
If you are moderating/facilitating a space:
When someone accidentally breaks one of these conditions: Please kindly point out or DM (orally or in the written form), a moderator if a collective condition is not respected. Let's then take a moment to address and care for the space together.
Moderators will exercise the option to call for a break or time-out in order to reflect before addressing an issue or call for staff support in on-site sessions.
When structural violence is replicated (e. g. ableist slurs): Let us make sure that people affected by this receive the care they need first. Let us set further conditions to make sure that this is not repeated. Moving from a harm reduction framework, we will try to address the harm done and share resources. As facilitators a moderator may ban someone from this space if need be. A list of ableist language is here: https://www.autistichoya.com/p/ableist-words-and-terms-to-avoid.html
Moderators work with frames of taking responsibility for caring for the space, but moderators are not the only ones who do this work - everyone here does at times, too. However, moderators focus on taking responsibility for what comes up.
Summary list of steps to be taken when conditions are broken during an in-person or online session or event:
Acknowledge what has taken place using calm and neutral language.
Assess whether a time-out from the session is needed in order for the issue to be dealt with as calmly as possible.
Take time to care for the space and acknowledge any harm that has been caused.
Discuss and set any new conditions which will prevent a repeat of the incident or behaviour that caused the issue.
If not everyone feels able to agree to the new conditions, then assess whether anyone needs to be asked to leave the space. Note: removal from online sessions can be initiated at this point, however if the instigator of the issue refuses to leave a physical space then the session may need to be suspended temporarily, until it is understood by the instigator that it will not proceed with them present. In the case a session needs to be suspended: if it is a digital session, please inform the TT director via email within 48h. If the session is in person, please inform the TT staff member present in the space for support, as well as write to the TT director via email within 48h.
The Director will follow up on the issue post-session in order to ascertain whether the Conflict Resolution Protocol needs to be initiated.
Letter to facilitators from TT staff
Dear Facilitator,
These shared agreements support us in creating learning environments that acknowledge differences and move towards ways of being together and learning that are less oppressive. We understand these agreements as a way to open structures for collective responsibility and accountability. As a facilitator/moderator we invite you to carefully consider each of these points and to enact the more specific statements at the end of this list as an integral part of your teaching practice. When introducing these agreements at the beginning of your input we invite you to first begin with a name, pronoun and access needs round.
Access needs describe what you might need to be fully in the space -- this might include a pillow to sit more comfortably, automated captions on a screen, a light to be turned off etc.
And from here to read out each of the agreements one by one, with a different person in the room each reading out a different line – to get everyone’s voice into the space – and so that everyone can read and hear these agreements. At the end of reading, please take a pause and ask if anyone would like to add anything to the agreements, and if anyone has any questions (about terms) or rephrasing of ideas/concepts that would be needed. These agreements are always open to be edited and changed.
We hope this support makes for good classroom experiences and we look forward to receiving any feedback or questions.
With the best,
Ren Loren Britton & Ladan Yalzadeh (TT AID TEAM advisors)