Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Unmuted: A Digital Dilemma Inspired By Forum Theatre, Akhila Khanna

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

This report describes the purpose, process and reflections of a Forum Theatre video project, titled Unmuted, created to investigate the increased online harassment faced by women during the pandemic. Led by an arts and community education based initiative in New Delhi, India - Rang Karwan - and supported by the 25 x 25 Initiative by India Foundation for the Arts grant, Unmuted included a series of surveys and Forum scenes that were screen-recorded and distributed among 100+ digital spect-actors across the country. This report by Akhila, one of the facilitators of the project, will evaluate the 9-month-long rehearsal and research …

Exploring Online Participatory Theatre During Covid-19: Reflections On Adapting, Delivering, And Evaluating Student-Led Theatre For Health Workshops, Jeffrey Pufahl, Emmanuelle Crider, Kelviyana Walker

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the higher education community to quickly shift and adapt courses to the online environment. While traditional theatre programs struggled, the flexible nature of applied theatre created the space for students and instructors to explore and adapt existing forms, such as Forum Theatre and Sociodrama, and create engaging online workshops for the public. Over the course of 2020-21, students in the University of Florida’s Applied Theatre for Health program developed, delivered, and evaluated online health and wellness workshops for the public. This report focuses on two such projects: 1) a workshop on female reproductive health, and 2) …

Collective Beauty, Grace And Care Against Isolation, Mistrust And Lack Of Utopia:" Neoliberalism In Social Justice Theatre Work, Joschka Köck

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

Aeport on three recent global online exchanges focusing on neoliberalism in social justice theatre work that represent an amazing example of the circular thinking and complex processes happening in truly dialogic group settings that can be faciliated through TO and PO

Theater Of The Oppressed And Labor Organizing: Possibilities And Limitations, Jasmin Cardenas

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

A reflective essay to document the use of Theater of the Oppressed (TO) for labor organizing with a workers rights group in the Chicago area. Participants were working people from across Chicago’s Latinx immigrant community and previously incarcerated returning citizens, mainly temporary staffing workers who had never performed before. This essay attempts to document the collaboration between an independent artist and an organization and highlight some limitations and possibilities of using TO for labor organizing.

Image Theatre As A Conduit For Academic Research, Felicia Owusu-Ansah

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

In the last few decades Africa has seen an upsurge of the use of applied theatre in addressing individual and community issues in diverse paradigms. However, fewer studies have examined its potential beyond sensitisation, awareness creation campaigns and general education through playlets and post-performance discussion. This paper discusses how some aspects of applied theatre were used for data gathering in academic research in connection with Irregular Migration in Ghana. I base the discussion on how I used Applied Theatre, specifically, Augusto Boal’s Image works on the platform of Testimonial Theatre as an investigation tool in academic research. It also shows …

Leveraging Standardized Testing To Transform Curriculum Through Arts Integration: Effects Of Shadow Puppet Theater On Reading Fluency Among Elementary School Students, Nancy B. Parent

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

This paper presents findings from a reading fluency study conducted by Flock Theatre (Connecticut Higher Order Thinking Schools Teaching Artists) on the effects of a shadow puppet theater program in an elementary school setting. Data collected in this study show an increase in fluency scores among students who perform as narrators in the program. This paper highlights the role of teaching artists in leveraging standardized assessments to transform curricula and student learning through arts integration. Positionality of teaching artists, classroom teachers, and my role as a social scientist in this context is considered, as well as a discussion of the …

Augusto Boal's Joker And Pedagogy Of Freedom, Hamze Aleepayam

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

This text was a report on the Pedagogic project to apply the techniques of Boal's Joker to teach basic Farsi reading and writing to war-torn labor children, those who are deprived of the right to education. They learned to read and write well and wrote about their experiences of war, labor, childhood, fears, happiness, etc..., and its impact on their lives.

Taking Youth Voices Seriously: Theatre, Storytelling, And Empowerment With Refugee Youth In Memphis, Tn, Taylor St. John

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

This project report documents the most recent play-turned-podcast in a multi-year partnership between the Orpheum Theatre Group and the Refugee Empowerment Program in Memphis, TN. Youth from the program have been engaging in From Where I Stand, a theatrical storytelling program that weaves first-person narratives into theatrical performances that are presented for the community. While our third performance entitled, Refugee Portraits, was postponed due to the pandemic, it was given new life in the form of a podcast. This report will explore the process of creating the live theatrical performance, pivoting that performance to a podcast, and reflect on …

Editor’S Introduction To The 6th Issue Of The Pto Journal, Mark Weinberg

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

This brief letter provides an introduction to my final issue as editor of the PTO Journal.

International Medical Graduates And Health Outcomes: A Way Out Or A Grave Mistake, Neel Lal

Proceedings of the Jepson Undergraduate Conference on International Economics

Insufficient healthcare access has been a principal concern for policymakers and health care providers. And yet, fewer Americans in 2015 had a primary care provider than in 2002. Worsening healthcare access presents an immediate problem and warrants a prompt solution. One potential solution to this problem involves integrating more International Medical Graduates (IMGs) into the medical workforce. In this investigation, we evaluated the effect of (1) IMG trainees (residents and fellows) and (2) all IMGs (including trainees) on mortality rates. We found no evidence that the addition of IMG trainees affects mortality rates, both in the aggregate and across different …

Average Life Expectancy Across Nations, Madison Eberhart

Proceedings of the Jepson Undergraduate Conference on International Economics

This paper analyzes life expectancy and the factors that influence it across several different countries worldwide. Data is collected from the World Bank DataBank. The cross-sectional data set contains variables for nation population, percentage of citizens with access to electricity, net income per capita, labor force participation rate, crude birth rate, population density, the percent of a nation’s population that is female, and the dependent variable being average life expectancy. This regression gives insight as to how strongly average life expectancy is affected by the different independent variables selected. It is important to understand how different elements and factors correlate …

Searching For True Happiness, Taylor Shipley

Proceedings of the Jepson Undergraduate Conference on International Economics

This paper takes a look into what variables might impact an individual's happiness. It utilizes the most recent World Happiness Report along with data collected from the UN. Two regressions were run, the first one using the variables GDP per capita, female and male life expectancy, unemployment rate, literacy rate, and consumer price index with a total of one hundred forty-eight countries. The second regression used the same variables along with corruption rating with a total of fifty-nine countries. It was found that GDP per capita, female life expectancy, and unemployment were the only three significant variables in the first …

Poverty Reduction By Getting Female Farmers Access To Cash And Credit, Sandra J. Thiman

Proceedings of the Jepson Undergraduate Conference on International Economics

Women represent the majority of agricultural labor in low-income countries, even though they have lower access to productive resources in agriculture. A major problem is the shortfall of independent income, control over finances, and lack of credit. Hence this paper examines whether women’s access to cash and credit can reduce poverty headcount. Moreover, advantageous outcomes such as an increase in yield, improvement in child health, and increase in sustainability may be achieved by allowing women farmers more access to finances. This research entails a comparative analysis between Kenya and Uganda, where I examine poverty headcount in comparison to financial policies, …

Cover - Table Of Contents

Major Themes in Economics

No abstract provided.

Affordable Care Act Insurance Coverage Gains In The Midwest: Evidence From The Dependent Coverage Provision, Sarah Herz

Major Themes in Economics

This paper analyzes how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Dependent Coverage Provision affected insurance coverage in the Midwestern region. The Dependent Coverage Provision allows individuals ages 19 to 25 to remain as dependents on parental health insurance plans. This provision was implemented to decrease the number of young adults who were uninsured. Using data from the American Community Survey spanning the years 2008-2013 and estimating difference-in-differences models, I test the impact of the policy implementation on health insurance coverage among a sample of Midwestern young adults. Under my preferred specification, which includes two-way fixed effects and controls for observable characteristics, …

Privatizing Social Security: Economic And Social Concerns, Sarah Madsen

Major Themes in Economics

The U.S. Social Security program is in need of reform. One of the most popular solutions to the long-run financing problem is privatization. This paper examines key economic and social concerns about a shift from a public pay-as-you-go system to a privately-funded system. While a privatized system does reduce overall uncertainty and allows for greater returns, its increased risk and high transition costs make it an unreliable strategy.

Designing Promise Programs: Decisions And Effects, Shay Slifka

Major Themes in Economics

Having gained popularity over the past two decades, promise programs are a relatively new policy tool aimed at increasing the number of people who earn two-year and four-year postsecondary educational degrees by providing partial or full financial aid. In contrast to other forms of financial aid for postsecondary education, promise programs guarantee funding to students of a specified geographic area, which is sometimes accompanied by merit or need-based requirements. Promise programs differ in design, vary in result, and potentially cause substitution and migration effects. By analyzing several mature promise programs, I identify three fundamental design decisions that policymakers must consider …

An Economic Analysis Of The Effects Of Streaming On The Music Industry In Response To Criticism From Taylor Swift, Hugh Zehr

Major Themes in Economics

Since its introduction in the early 2010s, music streaming has transformed the industry. Streaming has both fans and critics. One of the most notable critics is superstar Taylor Swift, who has questioned streaming’s ability to adequately compensate those involved in music creation. My analysis acknowledges her critique and looks specifically into how streaming services have affected all participants in the industry. While streaming initially decreased profits in the music industry as a whole, the industry has adjusted and has seen returns from this new model of music consumption. Streaming services increase benefits to all players in the music industry by …

Demechanizing Whiteness: Lessons From Theatre Of The Oppressed, Elizabeth J. Simpson

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

The Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) provides small group techniques to strategize and “rehearse” for collaborative liberation using popular education forms of systems analysis, bolstered by practices that counter implicit biases and habituated behaviors. This essay draws on interviews with jokers at CTO-Rio to advocate the need for continual engagement of demechanizing practices both within TO and in the lives of practitioners in order to demechanize the tenets of white supremacy that we are born into, despite our essential loving nature, with particular focus on counteracting a the habit of exploiting Black suffering for creative capital.

Don't Poke The Bear - A Project Report, Nicole Kontolefa, Grace Cannon

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

In 2018, four applied theatre practioners created a forum theatre play and workshop for a small Wyoming community. They wanted to engage participants in a dialogue about inclusion, racism and homophobia, in particular how it manifests in a state known as the "Equality State."

Forum theatre focuses on a protagonist experiencing oppression and how they may break their own bonds. In this report, two of the facilitators and creators reflect on how using forum theatre to follow the actions (or inaction) of a potential ally in a play about the exclusion of a gay woman of color was useful in …

Highlander Center: Hotlines And Cultural Bazaars, Je Naé Taylor

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

Since the pandemic’s arrival,Highlander has created specially tailored on-line community-building spaces, programs, and re-granting opportunities for artists working at the intersection of cultural production and social change. This report documents two examples. The first is a “Cultural Workers Hotline” for BIPOC artists to share struggles, needs, and strategies for (a) coping with the impact of the pandemic on their livelihoods and (b) creating change-oriented artistic responses to the pandemic in their communities. Highlander staff have held multiple weekly virtual spaces for all of our programs, and each gathering has employed an artist to be a graphic note taker. Illustrations are …

Joker Exchange Online - Meeting The Risks And Opportunities Of The Covid-19 Crisis, Uri Yitzchak Noy Meir, Anne Larcher

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

In this article, we narrate and analyse patterns of engagement and harvest key learning from the Joker Exchange Online (JEO) events on 11th April and May 2nd. We map the impact of these online events to inform future events as an effective collective response/strategy to global challenges. At the same time, we are Theatre of the Oppressed practitioners who attended/presented in the JEO, and this informs our research and engaged interest in theatre and community work on the margins of theatre, activism, and social change. The article has three parts: the first part look at the “triggers” for the Joker …

Virtual Newspaper Theatre: Zoom As A Theatrical Playing Space, Nabra Nelson

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

This article presents findings from a virtual Newspaper Theatre workshop that took place via Zoom on May 5, 2020 through Seattle Rep. Nelson reflects on the way that the constraints of the Zoom format can add meaning to Theatre of the Oppressed performance techniques in the era of quarantine and social distancing due to COVID-19. The article describes elements of the one-minute performances created during the one-and-a-half-hour workshop, and how the virtual sphere interacted with them and even enhanced them in meaningful ways. Nelson also describes “production” elements unique to Zoom, and the nature of the virtual “spect-actor.”

Application Of Applied Theatre Online With Children And Its Effects In The Indian Perspective During Covid Age, Chetna Mehrotra, Sooraj Amin, Roshan Karkera, Viral Champaneri

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

Applied Theatre in general and Theatre of the Oppressed in particular have been put into practice for a long time now. Right since when Augusto Boal started Theatre of the Oppressed in the 1960's the tools have been utilized in many oppressive situations. Augusto focused on marginalized societies and their people. He believed that every individual who is not allowed to voice out their opinion, thoughts (political, social), views, and choices can be considered to be oppressed.

Today, in the year 2020 with the current crisis of the breakout of the communicable virus Covid 19 everyone is forced to stay …

Joker's Log 2020: An Odyssey, Julian Pimiento

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

Join our passengers as we embark on a voyage of Theatre of the Oppressed discovery during the destabilization of 2020. Experience one Joker’s facilitating choices and how those decisions led to unexpected pedagogical destinations.

The Year In Review, 2019-2020, Rachel Desoto-Jackson, Reg Flowers

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

The work of the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed organization and its members remains vital. As we reflect on the 2019-2020 organization cycle, we share with you the ways in which the PTO organization has continued to grow amidst these global shifts. We continue to embrace the challenges and opportunities of this moment and continue to support people whose work challenges oppressive systems by promoting critical thinking and social justice through liberatory theatre and popular education.

Theatre Of The Beat’S Restorative Justice Theatre Program: Highlights From The Baseline Evaluation, Karen Nelson, Keely Kavcic, Courtney Primeau, Kimberlee Walker

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

This report highlights the findings from the evaluation of Theatre of the Beat’s (TOTB) Restorative Justice Theatre Program, which works with incarcerated persons at the Grand Valley Institution for Women (GVIW), a federal prison in Kitchener, Ontario. The project was conducted by the Research Shop, part of the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) at the University of Guelph, in partnership with Theatre of the Beat (TOTB), a not-for-profit theatre company with a process rooted in restorative justice principles and a passion for promoting conversations around social justice.

Abbreviating Boal At The Louisiana Old State Capitol Museum: Using Image Theatre, Bonny Mcdonald, Joshua Hamzehee, Naomi P. Bennett, Montana Smith

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

This article describes the execution of and reflections of a Theatre of the Oppressed workshop offered in 2017 to middle and high school groups visiting the Louisiana Old State Capitol Museum on half-day field trips. The workshops accompanied The Power of Children: Making a Difference exhibit, which features the stories and struggles of Ruby Bridges, Ryan White, and Anne Frank. Despite initial plans for an hour-long session, the workshop designed to connect youth participant experiences to the stories of the children featured in the exhibit was cut to only fifteen minutes. Our group of four facilitators discusses ways we modified …

Rehearsing For Transformation: Theatre Of The Oppressed, Pedagogy And Human Rights, Amir Al-Azraki

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

The report showcases a series of TO training workshops and projects in several contexts and settings. The aim of the report is to show how TO techniques and forms could contribute to the transformation of the learning environment and the social justice issues relevant to diverse communities across cultures (North America, Latin America, Middle East). It highlights and facilitates critical discourse and interchange through working with various participants (students, faculty, refugees, women, artists, prison staff etc.) and tackling significant issues such as trauma, violence, oppression, discrimination, gender inequality and homophobia. The report shows how TO could be used as a …

Forum Theatre On Post-Election Violence In Kenya, Mecca Burns, Caleb Seda, Bonface N. Beti

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

In August 2017, a Forum Theatre workshop focusing on the Prevention of Crime and Post-Election Violence, took place at Kerith Brook Secondary School, Nairobi, Kenya.