Why study arts, culture and the environment? | The University of Manchester
This week we chat to Dr Kelechi Anucha from The University of Manchester about their MA Arts, Culture, and the Environment. We look at how the course equips students with green skills while providing opportunities to work within your local community
Participants
- Emily Slade - podcast producer and host, Prospects
- Dr Kelechi Anucha - programme director, arts culture and the environment, The University of Manchester
Transcript
Dr Kelechi Anucha: I think it will appeal to people like me. Who are really kind of who don't want to choose in a sense, who want to bring together the full range of their interests, the kind of critical and the creative.
Emily Slade: Hello and welcome back to Future You, the podcast brought to you by graduate careers experts, Prospects. I’m your host Emily Slade and in this episode we chat about the MA Arts Culture and the environment available at the University of Manchester.
Dr Kelechi Anucha: Hello, my name is Dr Kelechi Anucha and I'm a lecturer in literature and environmental injustice at Manchester University. I'm also the programme director for the new MA and Arts culture and the environment and I'm really excited to be here today. So unexpectedly, my research started with, unexpectedly for somebody who's thinking about primarily about environmental injustice in questions environment. My research actually started with a focus on the human and on the individual, so my doctoral work was looking at this genre called the illness narrative, which is a kind of subcategory of the type of writing you might understand as life writing. Or memoir or autobiography. And these types of writing that kind of think about this first person individual experience of illness. The more I kind of examine this genre, the more it became clear to me that what you have is. Experience, which can be quite monolithic sometimes, and I was really interested in thinking about how we might open up the types of subject experience. Experience which might be occluded from this kind of quite conventional formal structure. So who's allowed to speak and who? Who doesn't speak within that space? And that led me naturally to start to think about how a kind of illness, disability and these kind of experiences are mediated by our environment and in questions of environmental crisis. So that's how I kind of found my way here. And then parallel to this kind of work, I was engaging in a kind of creative practise, essentially alongside my research and what became clear to me eventually is how the two are constantly informing each other. So why this programme is so. To me. Is because I think it will appeal to people like me. Who are really kind of who don't want to choose in a sense, who want to bring together the full range of their interests, the kind of critical and the creative, constantly kind of in conversation with one another essentially. And I think the kind of system in the UK, we specialise very, very early, you know, as as early as kind of secondary school, you're you're kind of starting to. About what? Life is going to look like so this is a kind of opportunity to open up the kind of different moves that engagement essentially amazing.
Emily Slade: So what are the aims of the MA?
Dr Kelechi Anucha: When I think about the student who has just completed this MA, this is somebody who is informed, culturally aware, kind of responsible. Committed to a form of collaborative and collective engagement or action. At a local. Cale or? Thinking on a bigger scale as well. For somebody who will have had the opportunity to cultivate their own way of responding, whether that's critically or creatively, so there'll be opportunities for students to design their own research, essentially both in the core modules and obviously as part of the kind of final assessment or dissertation element of the programme. But really. Number of different ways and there's an openness we're seeking to embed into the kind of assessment practises such that the assessments there'll be a range of different assessments for a range of different learning styles. And that feels especially important in the nation to questions of diversity, equality and inclusion. Yeah, I. The key aim is to support students to develop and cultivate their own independent, environmentally oriented, critical and creative practises. And gains and skills gain a variety of skills that will help them to go on to do the type of project based and community engaged or collaborative work that much of the kind of arts and culture sector is really organised around. The moment. So hopefully there's a couple of the things that students should be able to kind of access as. Result of programme, yeah.
Emily Slade: Sure. Can I just look back to the idea of the assessment process and how open it is that it's based on a range of different learning styles. Can you expand on that a bit more?
Dr Kelechi Anucha: So there is, with the dissertation there's two streams as essentially you can approach that assessment as you would a kind of more conventional academic assessments are essentially a long extended piece of writing which might fall over conventions of a kind of journal article or book chapter. You know, book type of academic writing that we're familiar with, but there's also the opportunity. To design a project in collaboration with our community and cultural partners, so that might look like something more along the lines of a kind of publicly engaged project where you might put together a proposal, for example. With a partner, a community partner, to engage a specific audience in a specific environmental issue or question in relation to the kind of disciplinary strand of your choice. So, for example, we'll talk more hopefully about the the core modules, but one of the core modules is called. Creative ecologies. Within that module, there's the option to kind of look at case studies concerning. Literature and ecology, visual art, performance, curating, participation, community engagements. There's a kind of there's a wide range of different avenues into a kind of creative practise that's environmentally oriented.
Emily Slade: Amazing. That's so cool. So let's stay within the core modules. Would you like to expand on the one you've already mentioned and then tell us about the others?
Dr Kelechi Anucha: Yeah, creating ecologies that will. That's one that we're really excited about because it will look very different to anything that we've done before. It's organised around a kind of workshop structure and the idea is that arts culture and kind of artistic approaches have a key role to play in addressing the kind of intersection. Concerns of our current environmental crisis. So we've got these workshops which will be led by academics and specialists across the School of Arts, languages and culture at Manchester and focuses on discipline such as performance and drama, art and Cultural practises. Literature and also that work in kind of concert with community partners and that will look different for each cohort. So probably best not to say too much about, you know, leave that open. Essentially it's best to leave that open. But what I will say is that. There's a focus in research in. The principles aligned with research and practise, so taking some of the theoretical and the historical context that we'll be engaging with within the other core module and bringing that into the kind of practise oriented approach. And also having time to engage with will have workshops and time spent with creative practitioners and creative professionals. So students are having the opportunity to see different career trajectories modelled. Which might you know, light up a light bulb somewhere and say actually. What? What I imagined my career to look like or what I imagined my future to look like can can be something quite different. Because I've seen this person who has this kind of creative practise, which is kind of in the Academy, but also involves working with directly with communities that interest them, doing the kind of disciplinary work and approaches that seem to fit best with their skills. So that's really cool to me.
Emily Slade: So you've kind of already mentioned this, that is it all desk based theory or are there opportunities for more?
Dr Kelechi Anucha: Practical elements. There's definitely a kind of strong practical or practise based element as part of the programme, not least because we have this kind of parallel stream of student enrichment where we're going to be looking at field trips and workshops. In addition to the core modules offering workshops again with these kind of creative practitioners and creative professionals. The kind of give students this kind of window into what it might mean to bring together. Culture and the environment and ecology, questions that environmental crisis. So you know, we're perfectly situated here in Manchester where kind of looking out into the kind of Peak District, the colder valley on one side. And then we've this kind of this city with this enormous industrial heritage. And this kind of legacy and precedent for meeting environmental challenges and anticipating the kind of challenges that attend contemporary ways of living. And relating to one another. So I think I think there's something really exciting here and we're very eager to get students out and make the most of where we are situated historically and spatially.
Emily Slade: Absolutely, yeah. There's so much going on in the city. There's the sort of branch that they've turned into, like a garden and it's amazing. Figure out the.
Dr Kelechi Anucha: Name of it now like I. And that's really, really exciting to think about what that might. Look like looking back in kind of 30-40 years like very exciting.
Emily Slade: Yeah, fantastic. Again. You briefly touched a little bit who really would this course suit.
Dr Kelechi Anucha: I think one of the exciting things about this course is that there is no ideal profile. There may be you may be coming back to. 4D after some time, send in industry or a time working in kind of the cultural heritage sectors or you might indeed actually be aspiring to work in those sectors and coming to the programme from a first degree. I mean, I can see appealing to students who have a background in humanities. Very broadly speaking, so kind of literature history, a history of art, drama, film languages and then social sciences such as kind of an anthropology and sociology, but also. We've had interest from students with a stem background who have approached us and said is this, could this be right for me? I know our answer to that is absolutely yes. I think the only prerequisite is intellectual curiosity and a willingness to kind of engage with the shared critical and theoretical idiom across the humanities. So there are kind of different critical approaches. And different ways. Into this this kind of emergent interdisciplinary field that we're calling the environment of humanities. But there are many points of access into that kind of critical conversation.
Emily Slade: If somebody listening. And wants to sort of double check with you as to whether they're OK or they came through chat.
Dr Kelechi Anucha: To you, absolutely, absolutely. We're always super excited to hear more about people who are interested. In course. It's also really interesting to hear how people might, you know, what types of individual creative practise that they might be themselves bring to bear on the course so. If someone is very interested in, for example, bringing together questions of psychoanalysis and art and ecology and environment together, I think that could be something that's really interesting. Or I mean, that's just one of many examples. But yeah, I think the short answer is we're we're delighted to. From people.
Emily Slade: So what does the future look like for somebody taking this course?
Dr Kelechi Anucha: We've spoken a little bit about the idea of what you might call a portfolio career, which is something that. That is not unusual in arts and culture sector, so having a variety of different streams and types of work that might bring together work with community partners or institutions, specific community groups. A specific creative practise and kind of project based. So I absolutely think that the skills that you might need to be flexible and agile enough to do to that kind of manoeuvring within a developing arts and culture sector are absolutely built into the design programme. But I think what's also interesting to me is the number of prospective students who are also. Interested in moving into a more traditional and conventional career pathways within larger kind of institutions or organisations? And that speaks to the fact that many employers are increasingly understanding the value of what we might call green skills. So thinking about in a company whose remit isn't specifically targeted towards sustainability or questions of environmental change. You still have this kind of growing understanding of. The need for specialist views and specialists consultation advice, both formal and informal, around questions of sustainability, of how to be in relation to the local community. I think that's really important. That's something that. Definitely is on our radar at Manchester University, so young. I think there's a number of different outcomes. Trajectories for prospective students sick be really rewarding and enriching.
Emily Slade: Perfect. Was there anything that we haven't mentioned that you? Would like to.
Dr Kelechi Anucha: Add yes, I mean, just because this term we've been teaching on critical ecologies and myself and my colleagues. So this is a version of one of the core modules that we're teaching with a smaller group this year. One of the things that's been really, really exciting, I've spoken a little bit about our cultural and community partners, but one of the really exciting opportunities we had this year and that we will continue to bring forward into the new MA is the opportunity to work with the Manchester Museum and the curators and the team at the Manchester Museum. With such a a rewarding experience, the special experience to be. In the. With students the first time they are handling objects from Manchester Museum collection. So there's this aura, obviously around the galleries and museums and the objects that they, they're kind. Stewarding and custodians of so to get to kind of. Almost step behind the curtain and handle these objects and to speak directly to specialists and curators about their histories and commit these objects with the kind of critical theory and the historical context that they're engaging with. Part of the core module critical ecology. So I think that's a really special experience. And this week, we would. Students are talking about toxicity and the idea of the toxic has this kind of multivalent quality, which is not a kind of neutral scientific descriptor or marker of environmental crisis, that it's a term that applies differently across. Geographies, across identities and across you know different kind of groups essentially. So I think that's always really kind of interesting for students to see how to materialise the thinking that they're doing. That's really I may find that really interesting and it's a it's a really exciting part of critical ecologies. I also think it's really important to note that the focus and the study of arts and culture are not frivolous. I think at a time where your students are feeling a kind of an increased pressure. To justify economically any choices that they're making relation to their careers, I think arts and culture have a really important role to play in our ability to kind of do what some thinkers have described as the capacity to imagine. That's very convoluted way of saying that it's not frivolous to. To engage with these different modes of seeing and experience in the world, I think an encounter with the arts in the form of a work of fiction or a performance, or you know, within even the museum collections. Has this really kind of unique capacity to catalyse change? You know, on an individual scale in the sense that you can be really transformed and inspired or impacted by what you. Encounter, but also it's just kind of collective and collaborative experience that has this capacity to really drive social change or bring people together in a way that awakens something socially motivated and oriented, which I think these kind of local community based solutions. Are really important in any kind of attempt to address the question of climate crisis.
Emily Slade: When it comes to the climate crisis, do you keep pure research and therefore teaching? As U to date as possible with everything that's happening in the world, any mischanging on almost a weekly basis are you guys sort of staying across that and putting that into a teachings?
Dr Kelechi Anucha: Absolutely. The core modules are team taught modules where we're drawing from expertise across. The school, arts, languages and culture, and often the teaching is drawn directly from cutting edge research. Recent research that colleagues and. Are doing in relation to specific concepts and specific ideas and questions, so there's always a sense of a kind of what's happening in the world, feeding into what's happening in the classroom in really important ways. And also, you know, the the kind of independent research element and the kind of independent research design. Means that students. Bringing what they're experiencing and seeing in the world on the news at an individual level, they're bringing that into their research and their research interests are feeding into what's happening in seminars and their experience with our community and cultural partners. So I'd say absolutely.
Emily Slade: If people were to find out more about the course or they are. That. Can go to. Yes. The first place to.
Dr Kelechi Anucha: Go would. Our website that you can always write to us in the admissions team or directly to myself, I'm always really happy. Do everything that can to respond to emails. So yeah, please e-mail myself e-mail emissions team, check out the website and check out our social media at Manchester University for further information. We really, really look forward to meeting you.
Emily Slade: Well, thank you so much for your time today.
Dr Kelechi Anucha: Thank you. Lovely to speak to you, Emily.
Emily Slade: Thanks again to Dr Kelechi for their time. For more information on the course and how to apply check out the show notes below. For a full length video version of this episode, check out our YouTube channel @future you pod. If you enjoyed the episode feel free to leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Thank you as always for listening and good luck on your journey to future you.
Notes on transcript
This transcript was produced using a combination of automated software and human transcribers and may contain errors. The audio version is definitive and should be checked before quoting.
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