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Taking its title from Psycho Buildings (2008), an exhibition of architectural sculptures at the Haywood Gallery, London (UK), this paper explores the complex relationship between pedagogy and space. Specifically, it aims to re/conceptualise teaching and learning as 'aesthetic encounters', paying attention to the haptic, experiential and participatory aspects of spatialised pedagogic practice. Drawing on examples taken from pedagogic art, a field of practice hitherto neglected within critical pedagogy, it is argued that the design, construction and critique of teaching and learning spaces needs to engage with the aesthetic distribution of what can be seen, said, and experienced by teachers and learners. These ideas are explored through one example of a psycho classroom, The Reinvention Centre at Westwood at the University of Warwick (UK). It is suggested that as spaces of creative dissensus and ruin, psycho classrooms can work to disrupt and reconfigure the distribution of the sensible (Ranciere 2004) and as such represent spaces of potentiality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of the way in which a group of students at one UK university mobilised their interest in and commitment to pro/feminist values and ideals through the establishment of a student society geared towards combating anti-sexism. Placing the students at the centre of the discussion, the article describes the various strategies adopted by the group to proselytise their views and how, through the utilisation of a range of resources, they sustained a programme of political activism around issues of gender inequalities. Highlighting the possible connections between pedagogic practice, classroom experience and extra-curricular activity, the article demonstrates the ways in which the teaching and learning process might facilitate student engagement with a broader set of ideas about life both inside and outside of the university setting. Within the context of ongoing change surrounding UK higher education, and the heavily gendered institutional climate which this supports, the article provides evidence to suggest that curricular design and delivery can impact upon student motivations towards a contemporary and, it is argued, transgressive and transformative, reworking of feminist principles and ideals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]