Queering the classroom – what theatre can teach us about diversity, solidarity and inclusivity
Where. Universität zu Köln, Hauptgebäude der Humanwissenschaftlichen Fakultät (Frangenheimerstr. 2), Raum 130 (EG) and Hauptgebäude Albertus Magnus Platz, Hörsaal VIIa
When. 04.10.24, 10:00 – 17:00 Uhr; 05.10.24, 9:30 – 15:30 Uhr
The workshop is free, please register with sarah.busch
uni-koeln.de
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” (Audre Lorde in Sister Outsider)
Institutions of higher education can be isolating and intimidating places when young people first encounter them, especially if they come from a non-academic environment and/or belong to a social minority. In addition, during the COVID-19 pandemic students have experienced a loss of commonality and companionship, often to the detriment of their mental health and social skills. With the workshop, entitled “Queering the Classroom”, we want to enable people who will be/are teachers to use practice-based theatre methods to create a safer and more inclusive environment for young learners.
What it is.
The workshop will use participatory theatre methods to help participants understand the challenges LGBTQ+ people, disabled people and People of Color face in the (university) classroom. Participatory theatre traces its origins to Augusto Boal’s pedagogy expressed in his seminal Theatre of the Oppressed (1979). As an educational approach, theatre-as-practice works with marginalised communities and rehearses scenarios of social injustice, oppression and community with its participants so that they may be prepared to react adequately in the world. As the workshop facilitators we want to work with some of Boal’s methods, such as forum theatre and the audience as spect-actors, which will give participants critical awareness around issues of stigma and discrimination and instil a sense of empowerment. This will allow them to act on these issues in their everyday lives. In putting the body at the centre of their learning process, participants will internalise practices of resistance, care and allyship through their own emotional experience.
Outline
Day 1: 04.10. | |
10:00 - 10:30 | Introduction, Welcome and Warm-Up. Hauptgebäude der HumF, Raum 130 |
10:30 - 12.30 | Session 1: Building Trust and Confidence Through Physical and Verbal Improvisation Hauptgebäude der HumF, Raum 130 |
12:30 - 14:00 | Communal Lunch Break: Sharing Food, Sharing Stories |
14:00 - 16:30 | Session 2: Community Theatre and Empowerment (Bassam Ghazi/Dana Khamis) Hauptgebäude der HumF, Raum 130 |
16:30 - 17:00 | Day Wrap-Up |
Day 2: 05.10. | |
9:30 - 10:00 | Welcome and Warm-Up Hauptgebäude der HumF, Raum 130 |
10:00 - 12:00 | Session 3: Working Through (Scenes of) Oppression (Phoebe O’Leary) Hauptgebäude der HumF, Raum 130 |
12:00 - 13:00 | Communal Lunch Break: Sharing Food, Sharing Stories |
13:00 - 15:00 | Session 4: Poetry as Activism and Resistance Hauptgebäude Albertus Magnus Platz, Hörsaal VIIa |
15:00 - 15:30 | Wrap-Up and Future Perspectives Hauptgebäude Albertus Magnus Platz, Hörsaal VIIa |
Who we are.
Melina Morr de Pérez (SchwarzRund) SchwarzRund (-/they/@) came to Bremen as a Black German Dominican at the age of three and has been living in Berlin for over a decade. On schwarzrund.de and in various magazines they write about multidimensional life realities inside and outside of communities. They also negotiates this on stage as a speaker and poet. They studied cultural studies and gender studies for they bachelor’s and master’s degrees. They research focus is Queer Black Interventions and Afrx-Latinx Identities. They are currently doing a PhD in the Contested Democracy research group at the University of Erfurt on the understanding of democracy with Audre Lorde.
2016 Afroqueer novel BISKAYA
2020 Afroqueer novella Quasi / [ach.Je](http://ach.je/) Verlag
@SchwarzRund everywhere
Invisible Disability Podcast Rampe? Reicht! [rampeicht.de](http://rampeicht.de/)
Bassam Ghazi is a theatre director and dramaturg at Schauspiel Köln. He commutes between cultures and perspectives and negotiates history and stories through the lenses of biography, post-migration, diversity, in- and exclusion.
From 2015 bis 2021, he was creative director of the performance collective Import Export at Schauspiel Köln. He also co-directed Stadt:Kollektiv, a participatory performance space at Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf, together with Birgit Lengers.
As an independent trainer and activist he leads workshops about diversity, discrimination and empowerment for educational and cultural institutions.
Dana Khamis is an expert for theatre pedagogy and an actress at Schauspiel Köln and works for its initiative Theater ∙ Stadt ∙ Schule, which brings theatre to local schools. She grew up in Jordan and lives in Cologne, organising workshops about intercultural communication and diversity, for example with Bürgerzentrum Ehrenfeld e.V. She has also interviewed the participants for the exposition 10 People. Faces. Stories for Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst e.V.
Phoebe O'Leary is an artist and interdisciplinary researcher focusing on the intersection of performance practice and LGBTQ+ histories. She is a doctoral candidate in Drama and English at University College Dublin. Her research and teaching interests span contemporary performance, queer theory, biopolitics, and social epidemiology. In addition to her academic work, Phoebe works as a community arts facilitator with various youth, community groups, and schools. Her practice focuses on using theatre-based methods of working with groups to achieve social, personal and political development. In 2019, she was awarded the Dean's Legacy Award from Trinity College Dublin for her outstanding contributions to Irish community arts.
Sarah Busch is a lecturer in Queer and English Literature and Culture at the University of Cologne. In her dissertation on contemporary Irish theatre and audiences for the University of Freiburg she explores the ways in which theatre performances affect spectators emotionally and how such affective experiences shape the performance. In previous workshops, Sarah has used methods of improvisation as physical empowerment and taught queerfeminist theatre practice as a method for the classroom. With her student theatre group, the maniACTs, she has received the Bertha-Ottenstein-Preis for Equality, Gender und Diversity at the University of Freiburg for their production of The Vagina Monologues in 2019.