Thomas R. Hilder

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Approx. 10 hrs of learning materials, including:

Introduction

Arts-based research (ABR) emerged as a paradigm in the 1990s. It encompasses a wide range of work, often employing different names (e.g. artistic research; a/r/tography), that employs artistic forms in the designing, carrying out, and/or dissemination of research. Drawing on different strands of thought and practice, practitioners of ABR challenge the ways in which art and science have long been seen as mutually exclusive and instead recognise the important overlaps and mutually beneficial potentials of both in understanding the world. In particular, ABR advocates for the ways in which the arts and creativity are central to knowledge creation, learning, and sharing. The types of arts included in ABR is multiple and limitless, including poetry, song, theatre, film, painting, dance, to mention a few. Arts can foreground embodied and holistic forms of knowledge, centre the body and emotions, nurture empathy and reflection, and allude to deep social truths. In these ways, ABR can work against positivist, logocentric, patriarchal and imperial ways of knowing in traditional scientific enquiry. Indeed, it has created a space for especially for scholars from marginalized backgrounds to create and share knowledge in ways that are more adept to the contexts from which they come.

This space attends to the significance of ABR in proposing more socially just methods. In Part 1 you are invited to learn about the history, philosophy, and practice of ABR. Part 2 invites you to explore the complexities of designing and carrying out ABR projects. Finally, Part 3 offers a chance to explore the opportunities of ABR for queer and trans communities.

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The learning outcomes of this space are:

  1. To gain knowledge about the potentials of ABR for developing innovative models of knowledge creation, learning, and dissemination.
  2. To be able to assess the complexities of carrying out ABR projects and the ethical issues they raise.
  3. To be able to appreciate the significance of of ABR for marginalized communities. </aside>

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Keywords: Arts-based research; embodied knowledge; holistic practice; ethics

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Part 1

Read the texts by Chilton & Leavy (2014) and Finley (2008) and reflect on the following questions:

  1. What is arts-based research?
  2. How and why has arts-based research emerged?
  3. What are the potentials of arts-based research for marginalised communities? </aside>

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Part 2

Read two of the following texts by Cooperman (2018), Ignagni & Church (2008), and/or Pecenco (2018), Plumb et al. (2018) and reflect on the following questions:

  1. How is the project designed?
  2. What is the aim of the project?
  3. What ethical considerations have been addressed? </aside>

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Part 3

Read two of the texts by Allegranti (2024), Denton & Cain (2023), Carcher & Caldwell (2018), and/or Mountz (2018) and reflect on the following questions:

  1. Why are arts used for addressing the concerns of queer and trans people?
  2. What are the outcomes of the project and how are they presented in the text?
  3. How effective do you think the project is? </aside>

Resources

Key Readings

Allegranti, Beatrice. 2024. Moving Kinship: Practicing feminist justice in a more-than-human world. Taylor & Francis: Chapter 7

Denton, J. Michael, and Leia K. Cain. 2023. "Creating Queer Epistemologies and Embodied Knowledge Through Narrative and Arts-Based Research." Departures in Critical Qualitative Research 12 (4): 133-157.

Chilton, Gioia, and Patricia Leavy. 2014. "Arts-Based Research Practice: Merging Social Research and the Creative Arts." In The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by Patricia Leavy, 403-422. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.

Cooperman, Hilary. 2018. "Listening Through Performance: Identity, embodiment, and arts-based research." In Creating Social Change through Creativity: Anti-oppressive arts-based research methodologies, edited by Moshoula Capous-Desyllas and Karen Morgaine, 19-35. Springer.

Finley, Susan. 2008. "Arts-Based Research." In Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research: Perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues, edited by J. Gary Knowles and Ardra L. Cole, 71-81.