From Learning to Public Engagement: UCC Staff Create Global Justice Films and Exhibition

18 Sep 2026

UCC staff participants in the Digital Badge in Global Citizenship Education and the 15-credit master’s micro-credential ED6082 brought their learning into public space through an ambitious programme of filmmaking, creative practice and exhibition.

Led by Dr Gertrude Cotter through the Praxis Project in UCC’s School of Education, the initiative explored film not simply as a means of presenting information, but as a participatory Global Justice Education methodology. Staff participants considered how film and digital storytelling could support critical inquiry, amplify different forms of knowledge, connect personal experience with wider structures and encourage informed public engagement.

The filmmaking process also required participants to engage carefully with questions of voice, consent, representation and positionality. They considered who was speaking, whose experiences were being represented, how people with lived experience could participate meaningfully, and how complex global justice issues could be communicated without simplifying them or speaking on behalf of others.

The resulting films formed part of a major public exhibition, In a Fractured World: Worlds We Live In, Worlds We Question, Worlds We Imagine. The exhibition was launched at Cork City Library on 5 May 2026 and remained on public display for a month. It subsequently returned to UCC as a central feature of Praxis Week, where it was exhibited in the Praxis Hub from 8 to 12 June.

Alongside four short films, the exhibition included posters, installations, books, digital displays, a historical timeline, quizzes and participatory activities. Its themes included migration, the care economy, Palestine and children’s right to education, sustainability, cultural and communal values, inequality, representation, belonging, voice and radical hope. Visitors were invited to contribute their own reflections, drawings and responses.

The project demonstrates how professional learning can move beyond the conventional classroom or assessment. UCC staff became researchers, filmmakers, facilitators and public educators, while the exhibition created opportunities for dialogue between the university and wider community.

The work was developed through the Irish Aid-funded Praxis Project. The filmmaking, exhibition and associated collaborative research were supported by Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland through the New Foundations programme, with contributions from Cork City Library and Cork Community Media Hub.

For more information: https://praxisucc.ie/in-a-fractured-world-bringing-global-justice-education-into-public-space/?utm_source=chatgpt.com