The double-edged sword of storytelling: Performative language pedagogy with refugees, asylum seekers and migrants

Erika Piazzoli; Elif Cullen

doi:10.33178/scenario.15.2.1

Authors

Erika Piazzoli Trinity College Dublin
Elif Cullen Istanbul Medeniyet University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33178/scenario.15.2.1

Keywords:

Performative language teaching, Ethics, Storytelling, Sorgente, Distancing

Abstract

This article considers the ethical dimension of performative practice with refugees and migrants, positioning storytelling as a double-edged sword that can either elevate or stigmatise the storyteller. The discussion is inspired by 10 things you need to consider if you are an artist, not of the refugee and asylum seeker community, looking to work with our community, a manifesto written by Cañas, Refugee Survivor and Ex-Detainee (RISE) art director. First, the paper introduces the RISE manifesto and its significance to contemporary practice and research. Second, it discusses relevant literature, looking at the construct of aesthetic distance (Erikson, 2011), safe space as creative space (Hutton, 2008) and aesthetic form as double (Courtney, 1995) in drama. The core of the paper reports the analysis of nine interviews, conducted with professional artists, teachers and practitioners working in the context of forced migration. Data points to the interconnectedness between participants and facilitator, in terms of self-expression, creativity, vulnerability and agency. In this regard, the authors reframe vulnerability as an active, creative, liminal space essential to foster an ethical imagination. This kind of creative vulnerability, key to practitioners’ ethical imagination in performative work, can act as a segue into the symbolic, metaphorical mode of drama.

Author Biographies

Erika Piazzoli, Trinity College Dublin

Erika Piazzoli is an Assistant Professor in Arts Education at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin. Her research interests are drama and second language education, teacher education and embodied research methods. Her book Embodying Language in Action explores embodiment in performative language teaching, learning and research. Erika is the principal investigator of ‘Sorgente: Engaging asylum seekers, refugees and their teachers in performative language pedagogy’ and ‘Lacunae: Embodying the Untranslatable’ projects.
Elif Cullen, Istanbul Medeniyet University

Elif KIR Cullen studied at İstanbul University, the Faculty of Education, after graduating from Teacher Training High school in İstanbul. She completed her M.A. in Foreign Language Teaching at Yıldız Technical University and gained her Ph.D. degree in Applied Linguistics at Ankara University. She started her creative drama training which includes intensive courses related to drama teaching and a drama project at “İstanbul Contemporary Drama Association” in 2010 and became a fully qualified creative drama instructor with passing the Ministry of Education exam in 2020 after her post-doctoral in drama in education at Trinity College, Dublin, the School of Education. Currently, Elif KIR Cullen offers courses at İstanbul Medeniyet University, the School of Educational Sciences, and conducts drama workshops mainly for teachers.

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