Contextualizing Inclusion: Arts, Disability, and Race Across Transnational Learning Spaces

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 1:45 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Wellbeing, Equity, and Justice: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching and Research in the Arts

Abstract

This paper examines how inclusivity and accessibility are defined and enacted across different cultural contexts through a transnational, interdisciplinary arts-based study. Drawing from a collaborative workshop conducted at museum sites in China and the U.S., this research investigates how community-based art and dance practices engage issues of race, disability, and inclusion. Using interviews, participant observation, and arts-based artifacts, the study reveals that inclusivity is not a fixed or universal concept, but one that shifts across sociocultural and institutional landscapes. Findings highlight how inclusion can be unintentionally limited by assumptions embedded in curriculum design and pedagogy. This presentation proposes reimagined, culturally situated definitions of inclusive arts practices and offers pedagogical strategies that respond to diverse learners across global contexts.

Authors

• Min Gu, California State University - Long Beach

• Zakiya Atkinson, California State University - Long Beach