I am so happy with how this workshop went. I had 4 students show up in total, which is 3 more than my first workshop on Monday. This better turnout immediately helped me run the session with more confidence and ease as I was able to do things I planned, like give students name badges, do a round of introductions, and initiate a group discussion about intersectionality before we began the OBL activity.

As my students were Asian and Eastern European, I assumed some of them would be shy and not feel comfortable to speak. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see how open, vulnerable, and confident they all were to share their lived experiences as women with intersecting and marginalised identities. This is likely the reason why the second workshop took 2 hours 15 mins compared to the first workshop, which took 1.5 hours. It was healthy and inspiring to create a safe space where students respected each person’s point of view and listened actively.

They asked thoughtful questions throughout the session and concentrated deeply on the OBL emotional reading activity. This group spent much more time working through the emotional reading questions compared to my student in the first workshop. I decided to go at their pace, so they don’t feel rushed. I feel lucky to have had this rich and diverse group of students, who also gelled well socially and are likely to leave with each others’ contacts.

I can see why Graham and Natasha suggested I offer two dates instead of one. It’s helped me spread the risk of no or poor turnout and given students more flexibility to choose a workshop that suited their schedule. Wednesday afternoon seems like an appropriate slot because students don’t have anything diarised in their timetables. going on.

The feedback students left was very encouraging. Out of all five responses so far, all students gave me 5/5 for exploring intersectionality and being inclusive and thought the workshop was timed just right. Learning about Intersectionality and Engaging with Museum objects scored as the top two most interesting aspects of the workshop, followed by having safe group discussions. The constructive feedback left for me was to include more pictures, which I agree with and to let students drink or eat in the section before objects come out.

Overall, I feel so proud and relieved to have accomplished my ARP goal of creating an inclusive workshop and managing to pull it off!