WHEN & WHERE
Tuesday, March 11, 1:00pm-2:30pm (Pacific Time)
Online via Zoom
This panel discussion explores public-engaged arts-based research and its role in reimagining knowledge creation through applied theatre and dramaturgical methodologies. Featured scholars Dr. George Belliveau, Dr. Amanda Wager, Dr. Christina Cook, and Janice Valdez engage diverse communities—including youth, 2SLGBTQIA+ folks, and veterans—in co-creating knowledge, embodied storytelling, and critical dialogue beyond traditional academic spaces. By centering public engagement as both a research approach and an ethical stance, this panel highlights how arts-based research methodologies facilitate collaborative knowledge production and open new avenues for participatory research, teaching, and social transformation.
This event is hosted by the Public Humanities Hub as part of our Public Scholarship Series.
Panelist bios
Dr. George Belliveau is Professor of Theatre Education at UBC, where he developed and leads the UBC Research-based Theatre Lab. The Lab supports the exploration of theatre as a methodology and promotes collaborative initiatives between researchers, artists, and community members. He is a former k-12 teacher, and a trained actor.
Dr. Amanda Claudia Wager, PhD, is Canada Research Chair in Community-Engaged Research and Professor, Faculty of Education, Vancouver Island University. As a former bilingual Spanish elementary teacher and current interdisciplinary scholar, Amanda’s research focuses on participatory arts-based methodologies within community-led public art projects. Amanda is the founding Director of the arc: art, research, and community, a centre working with many communities across Vancouver Island and beyond using the arts as a form of bridging communities, language reawakening and literacy learning. Publications include: Art as a way of listening, Engaging youth in critical arts pedagogies and creative research for social justice, Art as a way of talking for emergent bilingual youth and The reading turn-around with emergent bilinguals. She serves on the Board of Walk With Me.
Dr. Christina Cook is an arts-based scholar, theatre artist, and therapist. Christina’s art and scholarship focus on trans, nonbinary, and gender diverse narratives. Her work advocates gender liberation for all. Christina’s plays include Quick Bright Things, which was nominated for a Governor General’s award, and ‘A practical (if dated) treatise on the art of genderqueer dancing’ in This is Beyond: A Time Capsule of Queer Experience. Postcards to My Younger Transexual Self (or YTS), Ages 0-119, was shared in Vancouver, Toronto, Melbourne and Barcelona.
JS Valdez is a trans-disciplinary educator, healing arts practitioner, and researcher specializing in the integration of arts-based approaches within education, health and therapeutic settings. Contributions in the field of drama therapy, include work with adolescents, children, and adults to process effects of trauma, loss, addiction, and mental illness in group sessions using creative arts-based approaches. With a rich portfolio of performances, including research-based theatre with veterans and exhibitions of visual art, J’s work highlights the transformative potential of creative practices in education and human well-being. They are an advocate for the power of arts to empower communities and promote healing, across public sectors such as education, law, business, health & wellness.
Moderator:
Dr. Marika Kunnas (she/her/elle), Assistant Professor, Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia.