Keynote Talks 2020

Nicola Abraham (English)

…in the age of COVID-19… Applied Theatre & Technology Adopt #TheWaterMethodology

This key note presentation will provide insights into the ways in which practitioners have adapted conventional drama in education methodologies to work online. We will discuss the challenges of access and inclusion and how the responsive nature of applied theatre lends itself to adapt and find new paths to create meaningful participatory and inclusive experiences. The Water Methodology is an approach that I have coined for the past two academic terms to respond to the changing status of the global pandemic for applied theatre practice with communities. I will unpack the relevance of this approach to our practice and note how fusing theatre with technology can help us to grow our ideas, not compromise them. This talk will be peppered with narratives of hope and projects that have occurred in the past few months with a range of communities in the UK, South Africa and India to reach those affected by COVID-19 and offer creative interventions that continue to embody the foundational principles of Applied Theatre. Now is a time for hope, and as artists, we hold a responsibility to respond.

Manfred Schewe (German)

(M)ein Weg in die performative Literaturlehre

In diesem stark persönlich gefärbten Beitrag beziehe ich mich auf meine Erfahrungen als Hochschullehrer im Bereich Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Auf den Gedanken einer solchen Rückblende brachte mich ein Interview, in dem Alice Lagaay, die sich in ihrer Forschungsarbeit mit der Beziehung zwischen Performativität und Philosophie auseinandersetzt, anmerkt: “For any intellectual journey is the intellectual journey of an embodied person, with a biography, a history, a rich and multidimensional experience …” (Lagaay & Seitz 2013: 31).

Einige Monate nach meiner  Emeritierung im Jahr 2019 holte ich Kisten vom Speicher, die dort lange gelagert hatten; eine Durchsicht von Dokumenten, Briefen, Fotos und Notizen brachte mich auf die Idee, einen ersten Rückblick auf meine Berufsjahre an den Universitäten zu versuchen, zwischen denen ich mich in meiner akademischen Laufbahn hin und her bewegt habe: Oldenburg und Cork. Indem ich an diesen Jahren vorbeistreife, zeichne (m)einen Weg in die performative Literaturlehre nach und hoffe, dass diese berufsbiografischen Streiflichter dazu anregen können, im Fremdsprachenunterricht zu ästhetischer Eigenproduktion zu ermutigen und eine besondere Wertschätzung von Literatur (=Sprachkunst) zu erreichen.

Erika Piazzoli (English)

Resilience and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge in post COVID-19 Education

Over ten years ago, Koehler and Mishra proposed to extend Lee Shulman’s seminal construct, Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), into a framework known as Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge (TPACK). They argued it was essential for educators to embrace technological pedagogical content knowledge to develop more effective teaching strategies.

Fast-forward to the year 2020, and TPACK has become essential for all educators, particularly so for those engaged in participatory, experiential drama work – not just in terms of teaching in the virtual space, but also tailoring the content of the work to the current mood of the post COVID-19 society, where themes like isolation, loss and community re-building are the elephant in the room.

This keynote explores the notion of resilience within each layer of the TPACK framework. It considers how performative language learning can be adapted to the online medium without compromising the artistry of teaching, with particular attention to aesthetic distancing and protection as essential elements of pedagogical content knowledge in a post-pandemic society, looking at examples from both embodied practice and research.