Workshops

Ticket holders will be able to sign up for workshops on the day. Each workshop has a restriction of 30 people, and some may have further restrictions on who is welcome to take them, as they may be for specific groups. We recommend showing up to the conference in good time to ensure you are able to sign up for a workshop place before they run out.

All workshops are taking place in Pleasance West; a building connected to the Pleasance Theatre area through a corridor. There is also outdoor access through the Pleasance Courtyard. The Braid and Cheviot rooms are located on the second floor of Pleasance West, and there is ramp and lift access and gender-neutral toilets.

Session 1 (12.00 – 13.15)

Racism in Science: Reclaiming Our Voices (Braid Room)

Science has long been viewed as an apolitical, objective, superior truth. But science always starts with a question. The people who ask these questions are influenced by their experiences and the racist, sexist, homophobic and ableist society that we exist in.

In the scientific community there is a resistance to people who ask questions that they’ve decided they don’t want asked. Even though science is supposed to be based on empiricism, there are also rules which govern what we are supposed to ask and what we’re never allowed to question.

What if this wasn’t the case? What scientific initiatives would we like to see investment and research in, regardless of the agendas being set by white supremacist patriarchal systems?

This workshop is a space exclusively for people of colour. We will be reclaiming our voices as active knowledge producers. What would it mean for marginalised people to become storytellers of science, rather than participating in a vision that others have created? And finally, how can we actually use science to dismantle white supremacist patriarchal structures?

‘Better Sex’ with Ruth Eliot (Cheviot Room)

In this one-hour session, Ruth will be facilitating a space for people of colour of all genders, ages, and orientations to come together, reflect upon and discuss how being racialised informs their experience of living within modern, British, sexual culture. Through different activities, discussion and analysis of written scenarios, participants will be invited to explore the complexities that arise concerning consent and pleasure from living with particular identities within this sexual culture. No prior knowledge required.

This workshop is a space exclusively for people of colour.

Ruth Eliot

Ruth is an independent trainer and workshop facilitator in the field of sex-positive, pleasure-centred and feminist gender-based violence prevention. Before founding and running The Better Sex Workshop Series, Ruth worked as a trainer, consultant and support worker with various organisations including the national Rape Crisis Scotland Helpline, Rape Crisis Perth, Rape Crisis Cape Town, the African Gender Institute and the Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit at the University of Cape Town. She has extensive experience teaching and facilitating about sexual violence, gender, consent, trauma and pleasure, and couching these topics within the context of structural racism, queerphobia, sexism, ableism and class inequality. Ruth’s workshops are discursive, nonjudgmental, trauma- informed and sensitive to the statistical reality that there will always be survivors in the room.

Sessions 2 (17.00 – 18.15)

Sisters Uncut: Prison Abolition Skillshare (Braid Room)

In this one-hour session, representatives of Sisters Uncut from London will be holding space to skillshare anti-carceral, anti-racist feminist strategy and tactics as they relate to their organising, and together we will discuss how to strengthen organisers in Edinburgh’s connections with the broader UK prison abolitionist movement.

Resisting whiteness – the zine (Cheviot Room)

Join us in creating a zine for printed and online circulation to commemorate this year’s Resisting whiteness conference! This will be a great opportunity to once again come together and share your insights on the day, the panels, workshops and other experiences through discussion and art. Whether you’re prepared to share a lot or just a little in words, pictures, poems, or collages, all materials will be provided.
Note: there is no requirement that what you create is published as part of the zine to take part!
**For this workshop the participation max will be more flexible.