Cecily O’Neill is keynote speaker at DiE Days 2022

We are honoured to have Cecily O’Neill as one of our keynotes for this year’s conference along with Karl Eigenbauer. Here’s a short profile of our first keynote speaker (information on the second keynote and general conference programme to follow soon).

Cecily O’Neill has worked in drama education for many years. She was in charge of in-service training in drama education in London and established the program in Drama Education at The Ohio State University.  She is a visiting lecturer at New York University and the University of Winchester.

For the DiE Days she will be contributing a talk and a workshop:

Keynote: Telling Tales

Myths and stories are fundamental to the growth of human civilisation. They are the way we make sense of our experience in the world, stimulating memory, judgement and interpretation. Can stories, these powerful acts of communication, become an essential element in the language classroom?

Workshop

In her practical workshop, Cecily will explore ways in which the use of stories can engage students’ imaginations and activate their social and linguistic capacities.

 

Cecily’s books on the theory and practice of drama include:

Kao, S. And C. O’Neill. (1998) Words into Worlds: Learning a Second Language through Process Drama, Norwood, NJ: Ablex

O’Neill, C. (2014) Dorothy Heathcote: Essential Writings on Drama and Education. London: Routledge.

Manley, A. and C. O’Neill. (1997) Dreamseekers: Creative Approaches to the African American Heritage, Portsmouth: New Hampshire: Heinemann.

O’Neill, C. (1995) Drama Worlds: A Framework for Process Drama, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Published in 2021 in Complex Chinese.