Transdisciplinary Approaches to Practice-as-Research Methodologies for Graduate Students in Arts and Humanities Departments

We offer three curriculums that support graduate students in rethinking decolonial processes to advance social justice efforts. Our courses integrate theory and practice, dissolving boundaries between conventional disciplines and constructing new knowledge that uplifts students to higher domains of abilities and sustained skills. Our experiential learning focuses on constructing meaning in the conflict-affect contexts through artistic practices and research processes. The goal is to activate philosophy as an artistic practice and mode of research in order to embody it and utilize it in sectors beyond the academy.

Curriculum One

Autoethnography: Composing Experience Through Performance

This course is a combination of autoethnographic and practice-as-research methodologies in performance, choreography, and theater. Through writing, movement, and vocal activities, students will gain experience to enhance their ability to understand and articulate cultural experiences as singular, collective, and in-process.

Thematic clusters are grouped into the following areas:

  • Writing
  • Voice
  • Movement
  • Performance
  • Documentation
  • Curation

Curriculum TWO

Practice-as-Research in the Arts & Humanities

This intensive course builds upon the concepts of Autoethnography: Composing Experience Through Performance, by combining performance-making and visual practices, and focusing on the intersections between autoethnographic and practice-as-research methodologies. Students will participate in workshops and develop frameworks, tools, and networks that can help them better articulate their theoretical and embodied knowledge in artistic-academic research contexts. The goal is to enhance their ability to activate their ideas and findings in a final project.

Thematic clusters are grouped into the following areas:

  • Autoethnography
  • Practice-as-Research
  • Situating Your Practice
    in a Research Context
  • Phenomenology
  • Mapping Practice-as-Research
  • Signatures of Practice-as-Research
  • Evaluation and Critique
  • Articulating Practice-as-Research
  • Exhibition & Performances

Curriculum Three

Performative Interventions in Contexts of Collective Action

In this course, students learn to manage conflicts that arise in multilingual contexts by conducting collective research and facilitating translations within a group. They also learn to resignify theory based on autoethnography. The goal is to form theory collectively through embodied research, devise approaches that deepen conventional techniques often used in contexts of conflict, and strategize how to activate these techniques as performative interventions. 

Thematic clusters are grouped into the following areas:

  • Autoethnography
  • Practice-as-Research
  • Facilitating Collective Processes
  • Documentation
  • Translation
  • Resignification of Theory
  • Embodiment & Movement
  • Ethics of Narration
  • Devising Strategies for Calls to Action

Curriculum Two

Practice-as-Research in the Arts & Humanities

This intensive course builds upon the concepts of Autoethnography: Composing Experience Through Performance, by combining performance-making and visual practices, and focusing on the intersections between autoethnographic and practice-as-research methodologies. Students will participate in workshops and develop frameworks, tools, and networks that can help them better articulate their theoretical and embodied knowledge in artistic-academic research contexts. The goal is to enhance their ability to activate their ideas and findings in a final project.

Thematic clusters are grouped into the following areas:

Autoethnography *
Practice-as-Research *
Situating Your Practice *
in a Research Context
Phenomenology *
Mapping Practice-as-Research *
Signatures of Practice-as-Research *
Evaluation and Critique *
Articulating Practice-as-Research *
Exhibition & Performances *