This practice-based research investigates identity formation processes informed by the experiences of a micro-Romanian community of collaborators in post-Brexit Britain, through Socially Engaged Photographic Practice (SEPP). The literature includes political, social and cultural theories that survey Brexit and media discourses, together with photographic, philosophical, anthropological and intersectional feminist theories that contextualise identity and otherness in relation to power dynamics. SEPP is a framework for collaboration and insight gathering to articulate identity and senses of belonging. It is led by open dialogue, transfers of skills and expertise, photographic practice, visual autoethnography and arts-based methods. Lived experience serves to offer alternative ways of seeing that counters otherness and mediations of identities. The research employs a feminist intersectionality framework to analyse and contextualise the findings produced in, with and through photographic practice. It refocuses lived experience as a form of knowledge and considers the complexity of othernesses that operate simultaneously, and which cannot be disentangled from each other as they are intersectionally experienced. This thesis proposes contributions to both theoretical and methodological discussions on identity and belonging. It appraises SEPP as a practical framework rooted in lived experience to reveal hidden dimensions of identity and embeds it as a tool of a feminist intersectionality framework to analyse and contextualise it within wider socio-cultural and political discourses, with a particular focus on Romanian identity in post Brexit Britain. Furthermore, it proposes a framework for future research that consists of intersectional and practice-based methods to reveal complexities of identity, power, and senses of belonging with marginalised communities. Key words: Brexit, identity formation processes, Romanian identity, socially engaged photographic practice, collaboration, community, co-production, co-authorship, practice-based research, visual autoethnography, othering, voice, visibility, feminist intersectionality framework.
| Date of Award | 7 Jan 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Rowan Bailey (Main Supervisor) |
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