Baba Jan’s House

By Mehdia Hassan

It wasn’t until recently when I began to see my grandparents’ house as a decolonized space for life-long social justice learning and critical inquiry. The reflexive conversations and dialogue that I have had with my Baba Jan have profoundly shaped me into who I am today – beyond any kind of “formal” education that ever has. The rhizomatic ideas that are continuously nurtured, cultivated, and fostered in this middle space between us have generated into a form of inquiry that has no end. It is a space of many emotions that are naturally woven within the fabrics of our dialogue – a space of love, care, and hope that disrupts white, colonial pedagogical structures.

How do our cultural knowledges allow us to reimagine what learning spaces are supposed to look like and be like?

 To what extent do we possess the agency to carve out decolonized spaces within colonial structures – to redefine identity, belonging, culture, and history in our own ways? (Dei, 2017)

About: Mehdia Hassan is a visual artist and PhD student in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto, OISE. She is interested in arts-based learning and research methodologies.

Keep in touch with Mehdia Hassan

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehdia-hassan-7492081b0/