What’s your love language? Across the month of March, I heard love speak loudly and clearly: 

*12/3, Vice-Chancellor’s Talk, Norwich University of the Arts: After my keynote, during when I shared love as a method in John Hansard Gallery project Karama co-curated with Martin Ruddock (Slides 8-9 below), neuroqueer students were keen to share their efforts, including a toolkit to help others, not despite, but because, of the gaps in their own support

*13-14/3, Love, Creativity and Abolition In and Beyond Academia by Dr Dita N Love University of Cambridge CRASSH: Love is finger-clapping, embodied in diverse doers/dreamers/daredevils. I couldn’t get enough of: 

  • The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Dr SM Rodriguez‘s provocation (Slide1, with slide with words ‘I use my love to guide me.” – CeCe Madonald’, a painting of village on fire, and caption ‘Christmas Rebellion, Jamaica, 1831’)
  • Queering Love and Justice featuring poets Dr Sanah Ahsan (standing, a Liberation psychologist), Dr Jasmine Gardosi (middle), and Jay Bernard (Slide 2). Gender euphoria, transgender wisdom in straddling duality; fasting as transcendent love, and the (in)justice system came to life through beatboxing and readings. This felt ecstatic! 
  • Palestinian-UK Dr Khawla Badwan reminds us that education, distinct from the academy, remains a site to nurture love (Slide 3, with slide with words ‘Education at the frontline’, and texts and drawing on humanity, ethics, solidarity) 
  • South African artist Ofure Omere-Kessi cites my work on neuro-futurism, and the wonderful Kwamou Eva Feukeu and Dr Malika Booker (FRSL) on our panel on Futuristic Love 

*25/3 Navigating Change: A Creative Leader’s Role (Council for Higher Education Art and Design Annual Conference 2026): For a session with Prof Susan Orr (Slide 6)and Dr. Laura Sillars, I invited Teesside University students Chloe Stevenson and Jade Foster to join me. Supported by Georgia Holman and kruse, we were a neuroqueer critical mass modelling love-led leadership (Slide 6). Chloe (top image, with Kai standing next to one of Chloe’s artwork that monumentalises discarded objects Chloe re-purposes in deprived areas, in this case a cigarette butt measuring 5 foot 5, which is four inches more than Kai) discussed her self-funded community interest company to enable other working class artists to exhibit. Through performances and prints invoking Functional Neurological Disorder (Slide 7), Jade formidably urged the sector to do better in disability justice. We subverted the gaze and dominant modes of leadership by re-orientating the space, and activated silence, grunts and crip time.  Download abridged version of my opening script here.

*20-21/3, University of Southampton: My workshop with Dr Stefanie El Madawi for Research Innovation Services Anchor Day on care-full approaches to neurodivergence support led to much questions and interest (Slide 10), which warmed me, as did joining Bryony Whitmarsh‘s workshop on intercultural learning with great international students.

Amid Operation Fast and Epic Fury and other live-streamed horror movie franchises that we’ve 24/7 front-row views of, I thank these peers and students for reminding me that love persists, and resists.

  • CAMBRIDGE: Dr S.M Rodriguez
  • CAMBRIDGE: Dr Sanah Ahsan, Dr Jasmine Gardosi (middle), and Jay Bernard (seated)
  • CAMBRIDGE: Dr Khawla Badwan
  • CAMBRIDGE: Ofure Omere-Kessi
  • TEESSIDE: Image from Kai’s slideshow
  • TEESSIDE: Dr Susan Orr’s keynote
  • TEESSIDE: Jade Foster’s prints
  • NORWICH: Screenshot of Kai next to slide
  • NORWICH: Screenshot of Kai next to slide featuring Karama
  • TEESSIDE: Responses on Slido by delegates to my questions ‘How do you lead with love? How does love lead you?’
  • TEESSIDE: Feedback from team
  • Read abridged version of my script here https://www.academia.edu/167006080/2026_March_25_Whats_your_love_language_Critical_intervention_with_neuro_futuristic_assembly_as_invited_panel_chair_Council_of_Higher_Education_Art_and_Design_Annual_CHEAD_Annual_Conference_Teesside_University_UK
  • TEESSIDE: Screenshot from CHEAD website on panel. Ensuring that the entire team was fully credited was key, as was the safety – but safety is just the lowest criteria.
  • TEESSIDE: Screenshot of CHEAD webpage
  • TEESSIDE: Screenshot of programme
  • LinkedIn engagement
  • LinkedIn engagement
  • LinkedIn engagement
  • LinkedIn engagement
  • LinkedIn engagement
  • Feedback received
  • Feedback received
  • Screenshot of Slido poll at Teesside Conference. Top: “What’s love got to do with your leadership? What can you do to ensure that people with less power are heard? How can you amplify voices that are deemed ‘risky’, ‘unimportant’ or ‘troublesome’? This had 30 responses. Under the heading ‘Recent’, ‘Anonymous’ says: “I love what I do and I love the organisation I work for and I hope this comes across in my leadership and as…”
  • Screenshot of Slido Q&A at Teesside Conference. Three sets of texts are seen: “Change is constant”; “We all know that we must love and listen and be respect(ful) etc, however does integrity and values still hold when powers against these forces exist globally?”, and “We want diversity, but do universities have the structures in place to support and facilitate diverse persons? Are they willing to change? (Thought-provoking)”

The post above is adapted from an initial LinkedIn post dated 30th March 2026.

25/3/2026: TEESSIDE
  • APA citation: Tan, K.S. (2026). What’s your love language? Invited panel/critical intervention on love-led leadership curated by Kai Syng Tan featuring neuro-futuristic artist-curators Jade Foster and Chloe Stevenson, for CHEAD Annual Conference 2026: Navigating Change: A Creative Leader’s Role.
  • Love was motif, metaphor and method for 25/3 Navigating Change: A Creative Leader’s Role, at the Council for Higher Education Art and Design Annual Conference 2026.
  • CHEAD is Council for Higher Education Art and Design, UK body for >70 art and design Higher Education institutions. Its annual conferences are attended by >100 senior managers from the Higher Education and the arts and cultural sector. The 2026 conference took place at Teesside University and was led by Principal Lecturer Dr Paul Stewart, with Research and Innovation Associate Dr Nina White and Project Manager-BBC-presenter Rachel Teate.
  • When I was invited to chair a session with conference speakers Emeritus Professor of Creative Practice Pedagogy Professor Susan Orr and Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) Director Dr Laura Sellars (who replaced British Council Director of Arts Ruth Mackenzie CBE who was taken ill), it was clear that opening my platform to elevate and celebrate the leadership of current Teesside University students was key.
  • I curated a creative-critical intervention featuring two exceptional Teesside students who embody love-led leadership: Jade Foster (MBA Cultural and Creative Leader Apprenticeship student who is also UK organization We Are Primary‘s Public Programme Curator) and Chloe Stevenson (final year BA Fine Art student, who draws on her working class background and experience in homelessness and addiction to found and co-direct The Middlesbrough Zoo Community Interest Company to foster agency and exposure for other emerging working class artists). We were supported by Georgia Holman and kruse. Together, we were a fully neuro-queer, neuro-futuristic critical mass modelling love-led leadership.
  • I framed the discussion around co-creative approaches to change- and future-making foregrounding activist, artistic and marginal approaches that counter hierarchical, colonialist, individualistic models of leadership. This draws on my book Neuro-Futurism and Re-Imagining Leadership: An A-Z Towards Collective Liberation (2024), (a framework and toolkit that re-claims ways to think about and do ‘leadership’ as a diversified, beyond-colonial, neuro-queered and co-creative change- and future-making, underpinned by the dottiness and joining-of-dots of neurodivergence), and within this, the strand on love (rooted in resistance to systemic oppression, solidarity, and focus on radical care, inclusion and abolition, and towards collective liberation).
  • Given that it was Functional Neurological Disorder Awareness Day, and how Jade was engaged in languaging that depart from the ‘normative’ (and was supported by two support workers, I framed the session around voice (languaging, as well as power), and inverted the tables in terms of who gets to speak (those who usually get heard were asked to not vocalise/verbalise, but amplify the voices of the seldom-heard and/or those with risky ideas).
  • Chloe discussed how she drew on her working class background, houselessness and addiction to found community interest company The Zoo Middlesbrough CIC, through which she channels her own funds (earned through part time jobs) to enable other working class artists to exhibit.
  • Through performances and prints invoking Functional Neurological Disorder, Jade formidably urged the sector to do better in disability justice. We subverted the gaze and dominant modes of leadership by re-orientating the space, and activated silence, grunts and crip time.
  • We were further supported by Teeside’s Dr Nina White and Rachel Teate. Together across several weeks we built a care-full scaffolded system of support so that love and radical care governed how we worked together too.
  • Feedback was overwhelming – the panel made a significant impact, with delegates approaching to speak with Jade, Chloe, myself and the support workers. Feedback include:
    • “Particularly enjoyed the performative interventions by Dr. Kai Syng Tan and Jade Foster exploring elisions and alternate voices.”
    • “Thank you for running a wonderful session yesterday, Kai, you led the panel with care and space and brought such important discussions to the forefront of the conference”
    • “We are very grateful for your clear guidance on how you wanted your session to run and your support for Chloe, Jade, kruse and Georgia”
    • “Thank you all for making sure we were looked after. I’ve had a great time, hopefully we’ll work together again soon”. “I’m so impressed with your work Chloe it’s incredible!!!”; on Jade’s prints: “beautiful work”
    • “You brought inclusion to the forefront in the conversation – it often goes unnoticed or brushed aside. The panel made sure this was front and centre and I was impressed with how the session was navigated. How the academics asked the students questions and made their own reflections, I will take a lot back to my own institution on how we can be better.”
    • “It was wonderful to work with you, I really appreciate the care and support you provided to the full panel”
    • “I had such a positive experience working with you and the team […]. I was ver nervous going in […]. But I enjoyed it very much and that was down to the support and care everyone showed for each other under your leadership, so thank you. I would love to work with you again if the opportunity ever arises”
    • “It was a great experience and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. When things did get a bit nerve-wracking, you were a comfort and I genuinely appreciate that. Thank you for advocating for us throughout. I look forward to hearing the feedback and seeing the photos. And I hope we get to work with each other again soon.”