Spring 2020

Volume 2: Unsettling Pedagogies

Hale Konitshek, Julie Santella, Keavy McFadden, Richa Nagar, Sara Musaifer
This image presents a striking and somewhat paradoxical sculpture or art installation, suspended against a dark, featureless background. At the center of the frame, a pale, translucent hot water bottle is encased almost entirely

AGITATE! Unsettling Knowledges presents our second volume, “Unsettling Pedagogies.” Forever cognizant of our limitations as a journal that relies on a ‘domain’ based in a R-1 University in the United States, we highlight unsettling lessons in creative co-learning. We rearticulate AGITATE!’s commitment to building learning spaces where radical pedagogies for sociopolitical and epistemic justice are at the front and center of our praxis.

Domestic Affairs

Katayoun Amjadi
This image displays an art installation featuring five small, house-shaped sculptures arranged horizontally across a plain, light gray wall. The lighting from above casts distinct shadows beneath and behind each object, giving them a three

Domestic Affairs investigates the idea of home in body, structure, and land, and explores the culturally embedded promise of security and hope engendered in the archetypal house. It explores a conceptual topography of “place”; it is a kind of domestic archaeology.

Teleportation | عَبْرَة

Ola Saad Znad
This image presents a wide, elevated view of a sprawling city bisected by a large river, under a bright, somewhat hazy sky. The overall impression is one of a historic city with layers of

“Yes, Baghdad and I haven’t seen each other since the war, but am I brave enough to change its perfect image in my memory? The walls of Baghdad extend their reach to me, protecting the only solid memory I have of the place I love, where my roots run deep. These walls keep me wondering: what would my life be if I had never left my home?”

Step, step, breathe

Sophie Oldfield
This image is a minimalist, high-contrast drawing on a black background, featuring two stylized figures rendered in thick white lines. Each figure consists of a solid white, roughly circular shape at the top

I started running eight years ago as a way to be in my city, in Cape Town. Step, step, breathe (video above) shares how running gave me a way to move through Cape Town, to see it anew, and to participate in it.

RMF: [Pre]Conceptions of a Movement & Interview with Zaynab Asmal

Zaynab Asmal, interviewed by Koni Benson
This image is a multi-panel, black and white collage or comic strip, combining hand-drawn elements with photographs, likely depicting or commenting on a specific event. **Overall Layout:**

RMF:[Pre]Conceptions of a Movement, is a comic book written and drawn by Zaynab Asmal. It was the product of a final assignment for a third year history course “African History Through Comic Books: History for What and For Whom?” designed and taught by Koni Benson, a postdoctoral fellow at the time, at the University of Cape Town in 2016. 

Muddy Truth

Katayoun Amjadi
This image captures a close-up, angled view of an art installation against a plain white wall. The artwork features numerous dark, rose-like forms, interconnected by thin, shimmering golden wires or threads.

Original artwork by Katayoun Amjadi.

जसिन्ता को पढ़ने पर …

Vishal Jamkar and Richa Nagar
This image captures a vibrant communal gathering in a rural setting, likely a village, under a bright, overcast sky. The scene is dominated by two traditional-style buildings and a large group of people,

The essay in Hindi emerged organically over the course of several months as we jointly engaged with Jacinta Kerketta’s submission to AGITATE!. It continued to find inspiration from her ideas and poetry as it grew from our verbal discussions into Vishal’s diary, and then into a co-authored reflection and essay. To try to convey in English all of the contents of what has evolved in the preceding pages seems far too mechanical to us. Therefore, we offer here a summary of our engagement with Jacinta, chiefly for those readers who do not read Hindi.

TORRE DE MARFIM

Sarah Almeida, Matheus Caetano, Raquel Chaves, and Josinelma Rolande
This image captures a serene, contemplative scene at dusk or dawn, featuring four people silhouetted against a vibrant sky, looking out over a distant landscape. In the foreground, the bottom third of the

An original poem by Sarah Almeida, Matheus Caetano, Raquel Chaves, and Josinelma Rolande.

I am not your data

Abhay Xaxa, with a translation by Antonádia Borges
This is a wide, horizontal banner image with a light, off-white background. It features bold text in the upper half and a dense, abstract crowd of figures along the bottom edge.

The poem “I am not your data” by Abhay Xaxa. Translated to “Não sou seu dado” by A. Borges.

Editorial Collective – Vol. 2

Hale Konitshek, Julie Santella, Keavy McFadden, Richa Nagar, and Sara Musaifer
This is a wide, horizontal banner image with a light, off-white background. It features bold text in the upper half and a dense, abstract crowd of figures along the bottom edge.

Our editorial collective evolves with each volume, inviting a rotating collaboration of agitators. To learn about the editorial collective active during the development of Volume 2, please see below. To learn about our current editorial collective, please visit our “About Us” page.