Exploring ‘Welcoming Spaces’ within Birmingham Business School
Reflections from a student-led project using poetry and walking as research methodology
Last year, student workshops at Birmingham Business School (BBS) highlighted the need for collective empowerment to decolonise the School. This inspired a student-led decolonisation project in 2024, focusing on rethinking the physical spaces around University House (UH), the hub of BBS.
The project explored what ‘welcoming spaces’ mean to students and how they perceive the physical spaces within UH. Two creative workshops were facilitated by Fariha Uddin, a BBS Equality, Diversity, and Belonging (EDB) ambassador. Poetry was chosen as the research method to help express complex and sensitive topics.
The workshops included a self-guided walk around UH, where students reflected on two spaces using a worksheet. This was followed by a poetry writing task on spaces and their relationship to student identity, needs, and belonging. Techniques such as collaborative poetry, line poetry, and blackout poetry were used.
The finished poems revealed students’ feelings about the spaces within UH, how they use them, and suggestions for improvement. The workshops concluded with students sharing their poems, either through a mini exhibition or by reading them aloud.
These creative workshops are a step towards decolonising BBS, providing new ideas and inspiration to ensure everyone feels welcome and catered for within the School.