Lily Indira Kirkby and Jessica Raja-Brown

Highly Commended, Innovative Practice

Apart from working dedicatedly to change the somewhat conservative curriculum of the History of Art Tripos through the engagement in the department's decolonisation group, Lily and Jess took the initiative to arrange teach-out seminars for all first-year History of Art students, on a multitude of topics that weren't covered in our Lent Term teaching. Lily and Jess... booked rooms, chose a topic and then let the other first-years pick artworks and present about them. After these presentations Lily and Jess would be quick to initiate interesting academic discussions about the works.

I daresay that these teach-out seminars revived an excitement and motivation for our subject for many of us, which was otherwise endangered after weeks of lectures lost to strikes. Jess' and Lily's passion and academic enthusiasm spread quickly and, I believe, helped many of us become better art historians. They did face many challenges - rooms that were suddenly unbooked, people who stopped showing up - but they always had a motivation which helped assemble most of us, and sooner or later solved the logistical problems.

Lily Indira Kirkby and Jessica Raja-Brown are both first-year Undergraduates (2019-20) reading History of Art at Trinity Hall and Pembroke College respectively.