Respectful Relationships

Queering Practice: Rethinking Power, Participation, and Change

When

Fri 10-Oct 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Location

JoY: John Yencken [45], Ground Floor

Skills Developed

Critical AnalysisInclusive DesignDialogue Across Difference

ModeWorkshop ThreadConnected Communities

About this KNoT

This interactive KNOT explores how critically examining and disrupting normative assumptions around human experiences of gender and sexuality can strengthen community engagement, social change work, and institutional transformation. Drawing on queer theory, lived experience, and practitioner knowledge, participants will explore how heteronormativity subtly shapes systems, expectations, and outcomes across sectors. Through collaborative reflection, case studies, and creative prompts, students will consider what it means to make their practice more relational and inclusive.

Designed for students from any disciplinary background, this workshop aligns with SoCIETIE’s commitment to equity, transformation, and deep engagement. It will challenge students to think critically and act boldly, equipping them to question power, embrace complexity, and co-create change with community partners.

Preparation

Students will be asked to read a short provocation (provided) and reflect on a moment in their life, study, or work where they conformed to, resisted, or questioned an expected norm.

What You’ll Learn

How to identify and critically engage with normative assumptions in institutions and engagement models
How queering practice can generate more inclusive, reflexive, and imaginative approaches to change
Ways to integrate queer ethics—ambiguity, resistance, relationality—into project design, community work, and problem-solving
Strategies for navigating power, identity, and discomfort in collaborative spaces

Learning Resources

Check out a big range of LGBTIQA youth led resources on this page: Minus18 — supporting LGBTQIA+ youth

Tips & Advice

This workshop is open to everyone, including those outside the LGBTIQA community. If you haven’t previously questioned gender or sexuality norms in your own life, this session may be especially valuable for expanding how you think about power, inclusion, and change.

How to Complete This KNoT

Participants will draft a short “Queering Practice Intention” to guide their future work—this may be a statement, a question, a story, or an act of resistance. These reflections could be shared (anonymously or openly) in a collaborative digital space (as an example).

Submit your Completion Task here:

Submit your completion task for this KNoT via the Qualtrics survey (ANU Login required). You have 10 calendar days after the KNoT to submit it.

Writing your reflection

Most completion tasks ask you to reflect on what you did. For example prompts, sentence starters, and what a strong reflection covers, see Guidance on Reflective Practice. Your completed tasks come together at the end of the semester in the KNoT Completion Evidence.