On (In)security: A conversation on education and intergenerational dialogues

Carolin Bebek; Kate Katafiasz; Karian Schuitema; Benjamin Weber

doi:10.21476/PP.2020.52285

Authors

Carolin Bebek University of Bremen
Kate Katafiasz Newman University
Karian Schuitema Keele University
Benjamin Weber University of Bremen

Keywords:

drama and arts education, body as an open unity, educating learning disabled and neurodiverse children

Abstract

This paper presents a Q&A conversation held at the Performance Philosophy Biennial in Amsterdam, 2019. Three presentations responded to the conference call of ‘intervening in the habit of academia as a place for mature or adult voices,’ by exploring ways of making space for children’s voices. Connected by a focus on intergeneration dialogues, children’s disruption and the possibilities of empowerment, both within education and within familial structures, the three presentations opened a discussion about interpellation, sensitivity and (in)security. This paper presents this discussion in a reworked and extended format, offering insight into the presentations on the day, the subsequent conversation and the overarching questions that these dialogues provoke.

Author Biographies

Carolin Bebek, University of Bremen

Carolin Bebek is a researcher, lecturer and performer at the Centre for Performance Studies and the Department of Educational Science at Bremen University. She is a permanent member of Theatre of Assemblage (Theater der Versammlung), one of the very first research theatres in Germany, that brings together students and academics from all faculties as well as professional performance practitioners to work on themes/questions that arise within academic contexts using various means and methods drawn from performance art and theatre. Based in the field of educational theory/philosophy of education Carolin is currently writing her PhD on the phenomenon of touch in education.

Kate Katafiasz, Newman University

Dr. Kate Katafiasz is Senior Lecturer in Drama at Newman University, Birmingham, UK. She is interested in the relationship between drama and desire. Her teaching and research explores how drama can be used to radicalize the relationship between words and bodies in ancient, educational, and post-structural contexts.

Karian Schuitema, Keele University

Dr. Karian Schuitema is an interdisciplinary researcher/practitioner who specialises in collaborative artistic research with children as well as inclusive performances for young audiences. She founded ‘Art Research Together (ART!)’, which is a collaborative research initiative inviting children from special schools to co-create knowledge using community arts (www.artresearchtogether.uk). She completed her PhD on children’s theatre at the University of Westminster and worked as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Keele University. Her work is grounded in her own personal experience of being neurodivergent as well as her extensive experience of working with children and young people in educational and play settings.

Benjamin Weber, University of Bremen

Dr. Benjamin Weber studied pedagogy in Münster and Bremen. He wrote his PhD on the experience of shame when dealing with people with disabilities (at the University of Bochum). His current focus of interest lies on the ethical and creative dimension of dialogue and on how the learning of emotions takes place. He is working and researching with and on autistic children and lectures at the Universities of Bremen and Bochum. With the birth of their son Theo, he and his partner Carolin got engaged in questions of parenthood and hospitality and how the ‘private’ life and thinking/doing philosophy intertwine.

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