Let’s

Talk

Silence

Art-based learning practices

What does it mean to listen to someone’s silence, to trace their entanglements, to acknowledge their past, to speak with their memories?

Hi!

I am Aytak! I am an Iranian feminist educator, scholar, artist and activist.

I have a great passion for people and their lived experience. I am interested in life-narratives; the ways in which people make sense of their own life, whether and how they narrate it to others and why they remain silent about it.

I try to spend most of my free time outdoors. Slow walks on a rainy day or long hikes in nature are my favourite activity!

I also love creating art; through painting, poetry and performance I explore topics pertaining to social justice issues. My pedagogy is also informed by art-based and creative practices.

Pedagogy

A feminist art-based pedagogical practice is not simply about sharing ideas/topics, but it is a site through which we can crucially examine the power dynamics and coloniality of knowledge and knowledge production, investigate the material and colonial hierarchies of the classroom and the university, and build collective communities of care – a space for survival.

Postcolonial feminist

Art and Activism

I believe at the heart of social change lies community engagement and artistic expression. As an artist and activist, I not only find solace and self-expression through painting, performance and poetry, but also incorporate these art forms in my scholarship, activism and pedagogy.

I am a board member at Centre[3] for artistic and social practice. My recent curatorial projects include Weightless Entities (2022) and Women, Life, Freedom: The Art of Protest (2022).

I also serve on multiple activist organizations such as Feminist4Jina (F4J) and Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT).

Art-based learning practices

Decentring the classroom and working together for a more equitable world often requires unlearning and relearning the stories that make ‘us’ and our politics.

Decolonial feminism
Postcolonial feminist

These un/learning moments, although uncomfortable at times, are journeys in which we learn how to build a collective community of care; a learning community that cares.

Art-based learning practices
Art-based learning practices

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