TH992-30 Researching Performance/Performing Research
Introductory description
TH992-30 Researching Performance/Performing Research
Module aims
To enable students to understand and use research methods that are central to applied and socially engaged performance making and research. It will address research skills, methods, critical frameworks and areas of study that inform processes of making and creating performance in these contexts. It will consider the questions and ethical considerations that arise when employing specific research methods in in this context in order to develop critical perspectives
Outline syllabus
This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.
- Introduction: Overview of the conceptualisation and approach to this module. It will outline the relationship between qualitative and quantitative research methods. Discuss the important of Situating the practitioner/ researcher
- Approaches to Applied Theatre: scope (education/ community) and issues arising (legitimating, effect, ethics) compared to socially engaged theatre.
- Decolonising research methodologies.
- Archival research – ethics and implications of selecting and curating archival material (potentially shared with Dramaturgical Thinking for Script Development, MAPA)
- Action research: Participation, Observation, Thick description - Oral History and interviewing (potentially shared with Dramaturgical Thinking for Script Development, MAPA)
- Reading week
- (Auto)Ethnographic research – collaboration & writing (potentially shared with Dramaturgical Thinking for Script Development, MAPA)
- Performance as research – designing a project to engage research with audiences
- Performance as research: Feedback methods
- Online v offline research: audiences, data and coding.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Identify specific research methods appropriate for a variety of applied and socially engaged performance contexts, and understand the issues involved in working with them.
- Understand the ways in which specific topics may impact the ways in which practitioners working in these contexts may choose to tackle issues through the arts. For example, how the ways in which specific discourses (on human rights, notions of the public sphere, psychiatric care, gender politics, trauma, cities, ecologies) or histories (colonial and post-colonial) can inform ways of working and research outcomes.
- Understand how to apply specific research methods both from theatre and performance studies and other disciplines in their arts’ practice.
Indicative reading list
Ali-Knight, Jane, Martin Robertson, Alan Fyall, Adele Ladkin (eds.) International perspectives of festivals and events: paradigms of analysis. Elsevier, 2008.
Amelina, Anna, Devrimsel D. Nergiz, Thomas Faist, Nina Glick Schiller (eds.) Beyond methodological nationalism: research methodologies for cross-border studies. Routledge, 2012.
Baxter, Veronica & Katharine E. Low. 2016. Applied Theatre: performing Health and Wellbeing. Methuen Drama.
Bennett, Jane & Charmaine Pereira (eds.). Jacketed women: qualitative research methodologies on sexualities and gender in Africa. United Nations University Press, 2013.
Boal, A. 1990. Theatre of the oppressed. New York, NY: Theatre Communications Group.
Chilisa, Bagele. Indigenous research methodologies. SAGE Publications, 2012.
Chinyowa, K. C. 2006. Evaluating the Efficacy of Community Theatre, Intervention in/as Performance: A South African case study, Applied Theatre Researcher, http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/114957/06-Chinyowa.pdf,
Chinyowa, K. C. 2011. Revisiting monitoring and evaluation strategies for applied drama and theatre practice in African contexts, Research in Drama. 16:3, 337- 356.
Conquergood, Dwight (ed.). 2013. Cultural struggles: performance, ethnography, praxis. Critical introduction by E. Patrick Johnson. University of Michigan Press.
Consalvo, Mia and Charles Ess (eds.) 2011. The handbook of internet studies. Wiley-Blackwell.
Fleishman M. 2012. ‘The Difference of Performance-as-Research’, Theatre Research International, 37:1, 28-37.
Frasz, Alexis & Holly Sidford Helicon Collaborative. 2017. Mapping the Landscape of Socially Engaged Artistic Practice, http://artmakingchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Mapping_the_Landscape_of_Socially_Engaged_Artistic_Practice_Sept2017.pdf
Freire, P. [1968] 2017. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Penguin Modern Classics
Harrop, Peter and Dunja Njaradi. 2013. Performance and Ethnography: Dance, Drama, Music. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Hughes, Jenny & Nicholson, Helen (eds.) 2016. Critical Perspectives on Applied Theatre. CUP.
Kershaw, Baz & Nicholson, Helen (eds.) 2011. Research Methods in Theatre and Performance (Research Methods for the Arts and Humanities), Edinburgh University Press.
Lapan, Stephen D., MaryLynn T. Quartaroli, Frances Julia Riemer (eds) 2012. Qualitative research: an introduction to methods and designs, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Miller, Tina, et al. 2012. Ethics in qualitative research. Sage.
Nelson R. 2013. Practice as Research in the Arts: Principles, Protocols, Pedagogies, Resistances. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Nicholson, H. (ed.) 2011. Research Methods in Theatre and Performance. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 186-210.
Nicholson, H. 2005. Applied drama: The gift of theatre, London: Palgrave.
Nicholson, H. 2009. Theatre and education. London: Palgrave.
Norman K. Denzin, Yvonna S. Lincoln, Linda Tuhiwai Smith (eds.) 2008. Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies. Sage.
O’Connor, peter. 2015. Applied Theatre: Research. Methuen Drama.
Prendergast, M., Saxton, J. 2009. Applied Theatre: Globalized case studies and challenges for practice, Bristol: Intellect.
Prentki, T., Preston, S. (eds.) 2009. The Applied Theatre Reader. New York: Routledge.
Preston, Sheila. 2016. Applied Theatre: Facilitation. Methuen Drama.
Rasmussen, B. 2000. Applied theatre and the power play: An international viewpoint, Applied Theatre Researcher, http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/81798/Rasmussen.pdf , White
Riley, Shannon Rose and Lynette Hunter (eds.) 2009. Mapping Landscapes for Performance as Research. Palgrave Macmillan.
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. 1999. Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples. St. Martin's Press.
Soyini Madison, D. 2012. Critical Ethnography: Method, Ethics, and Performance. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE.
Thompson, J. 2003. Applied Theatre: Bewilderment and Beyond. Oxford:
Thompson, J. 2006. Performance of pain, performance of beauty, Research in Drama Education, 11:1, 47-57.
Thompson, J. 2009. Performance affects: Applied theatre and the end of effect. London: Palgrave.
Thompson, J., Hughes, J., Balfour, M. 2009. Performance in place of war. London: Seagull.
Wang, Q, S Coemans, R. Siegesmund & K. Hannes. 2017. Arts-based Methods in Socially Engaged Research Practice. Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal, 2:2, 5-39; https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/ari/index.php/ari/article/view/27370/21374.
White, Gareth. 2015. Applied Theatre: Aesthetics. Methuen Drama.
Research element
This is a module focussed on research skills, methods and critical frameworks, so this is at the heart of the module.
Interdisciplinary
Theatre is by definition engaged with other fields - so we will conside rhow psychological and sociological models and frameworks impact how we plan and research applied theatre practices.
International
We will look at methodologies from the global north and south, including indigenous research methodologies from First Nation peoples.
Subject specific skills
This module will develop research skills, research methods, critical frameworks and approaches to study that inform processes of making and creating performance in context that engage various publics with practitioners and researchers. It will help students to develop their work in relation to ethical considerations that arise when employing specific research methods in these contexts.
Transferable skills
Research skills, methodologies, writing skills
Ability to work with publics ethically
Study time
| Type | Required |
|---|---|
| Seminars | 9 sessions of 3 hours (82%) |
| Tutorials | 1 session of 3 hours (9%) |
| Project supervision | 1 session of 3 hours (9%) |
| Total | 33 hours |
Private study description
Independent reading and research concerning their projects and research methodologies
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You must pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A2
| Weighting | Study time | Eligible for self-certification | |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment component |
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| Portfolio of three short (3x1500 word) | 50% | 30 hours | No |
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These exercises requre students to apply a selection of research skills, methods and critical approaches in specific contexts. It will reflect an their awareness of how context, intention and appropriateness of approach may affect project design. |
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Reassessment component is the same |
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Assessment component |
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| Group practice as research project | 50% | 100 hours | No |
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Designed in response to the issues and themes explored in the module. This is where students will demonstrate their ability to apply one or more methodologies in a specific context (approx. 1 hour). |
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Reassessment component is the same |
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Feedback on assessment
Written and oral
Post-requisite modules
If you pass this module, you can take:
- TH997-60 Final Project (practical)
- TH996-60 Final Project (written)
Courses
This module is Core for:
- Year 1 of TTHS-W440 Postgraduate Taught Applied Theatre: Arts, Action, Change