Goldsmiths, University of London
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, Tate Modern. Supervised from 2020 to 2021 by the late Dr Achim Borchardt-Hume, Director of Exhibitions, Tate Modern.
January 2020 –
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 ‘religious literacy’ 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 ‘secular spaces’, 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, ‘Spiritual Affects Against a Secularist Grid: Rethinking Modernism and Islam/ic Art‘, Event Report, Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational, 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/research/research-centres/hyundai-tate-research-centre-transnational/event-report-rethinking-modern-islamic-art, accessed 11 January 2024.
Hassan Vawda, ‘“A Deficiency in Lived Divinity” in Framing British Art‘, British Art News: Newsletter of the British Art Network, April/May 2021, pp.19–21, https://issuu.com/paulmelloncentre/docs/ban_newsletter_may_2021__1_, accessed 11 January 2024.
‘Scholar-in-Residence: Hassan Vawda, Charleston, SC, Fall 2023‘, Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts, https://fsa.art/residencies/scholar-in-residence-hassan-vawda/, accessed 11 January 2024.
Hassan Vawda, ‘جا مِis wineglass: the National Trust’s Powis Castle and the Clive of India Collection‘, 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, ‘Museums must go further if they want to be seen as “temples of the secular”’, Museums Association, published online 1 June 2020, accessed 11 January 2024.
Hassan Vawda, ‘Activists, Influencers, or Participants?: A Muslim Culture Forum and the London Borough of Culture 2019’, The International Journal of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts, vol.16, no.3, pp.17–34. doi:10.18848/2326-9960/CGP/v16i03/17-34.