A Teach Out is a teaching session of any kind outside the University structure, to help foster discussion, solidarity and resistance. They are friendly informal spaces, a good way for people to participate in the strike, a way to build staff-student solidarity and breakdown hierarchies in the university. They can involve music, poetry, crafting, conversation, theatre, reflection, reading. They can be about the issues the strike is over (equality, insecure contracts, unsustainable workload, the cost of living crisis), connected issues in higher education (e.g. fees, course cuts), worker’s rights and the history of worker’s struggles around the world, or wider related issues like anti-racism, climate justice, the hostile environment for migrants, mental health, housing.
This session will explore themes of silence, withdrawal and refusal through sources and texts including Martin Herbert, ed. Tell Them I Said No. This collection of essays by Martin Herbert considers various artists who have withdrawn from the art world or adopted an antagonistic position toward its mechanisms. Other texts and sources will be brought to the table for an open discussion on the day. Click here for a copy of the the text.
To note: If you are picketing on the day, please feel free to meet at the UCU pickets in front of the main UCL Quad at 10.00am and we can head over to the venue together. Alternatively, you can simply arrive at the venue at 10.50am for an 11.00am start.