Abstract

This talk is part of the 11th series of webinars for Professional Development in the Arts.

A critical consideration when undertaking interculturality research concerns the recognition of ourselves as the point of departure for generating cultural understanding. We see ‘interculturality’ as involving positive interactions between different cultures on a number of levels, including sub-cultures, artistic cultures, gender cultures, linguistic cultures, and learning cultures. This distinguishes itself from a ‘fusion’ approach by taking togetherness as the starting point. The term ‘interculturality’ is, however, not straightforward or clearly defined. This presentation, which will be a mix of composed and improvised moments, aims to illustrate how forms of poly-vocality can be practiced where researchers ‘try out’ parts of the self, experiment and play.

The presenters include: Professor Pamela Burnard, the co-editor of The Routledge International Handbook on Intercultural Arts Research. She also supervises the doctoral researchers presenting today.

James Biddulph is the headteacher of the new University of Cambridge Primary School, and soon to complete his PhD. His work is focused on exploring creative learning as a diverse and complex concept, with a particular focus on researching creative learning with ethnic minority immigrant children in their homes.

Afrodita Nikolova, a Macedonian poet, performer, English language lecturer, creative writing facilitator with an Aromanian background, and second year doctoral student, is researching young offenders’ evolving narrative identity through their engagement with spoken word poetry. She will perform a poem to elaborate how power relations shape the dynamics of interculturality in the researcher-participant interaction.

Ana-Maria Mocanu, a Romanian from Bucharest, and a first year doctoral student, is researching how “interculturality” informs pedagogic practice and discourses in higher education. Ana-Maria elaborates the dynamics of “reflexivity” and how we communicate interculturality depending on whose “voice” we are using.