This roundtable explores the potential of performance based methods to cultivate collaborative, affective, and non-adult centered approaches in research with children. Framed by the central question, ‘What must we adults relinquish in order to conduct research with children?’, the event will bring together scholars, practitioners, and educators to examine the political implications and aesthetic possibilities embedded in methodological practices grounded in theatre, storytelling and performance.

Session 1 (online in Portuguese): November 5th 

10 a.m. São Paulo (UTC−3)/ 2 p.m. Paris (UTC+1)/ Manila 9 pm. (UTC+8)

With: Luciana Hartmann, Melissa Ferreira and invited guests

Session 2 (online in English): November 12th 

9 a.m. São Paulo (UTC−3)/ 12 p.m. Londres (UTC+0)/ Manila 8 pm. (UTC+8)

With: Ma Rosalie Abeto Zerrudo, Maggie Inchley and Sylvan Baker

Luciana Hartmann is an anthropologist and a professor at the Department of Performing Arts at the University of Brasilia (Brazil). She is affiliated with the Graduate Program in Performing Arts (PPGCEN/UnB) and the Graduate Program in Cultural Performances at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG). For over a decade, she has been conducting research by listening to the stories of immigrant and refugee children in Brazil, Uruguay, France, and Portugal. She is the author of the book Crianças Contadoras de Histórias (2021) and the editor of the collection O Teatro e suas Pedagogias: práticas e reflexões (2016), among others. She coordinates the International Research Network “Protagonist Childhoods: migration, art, and education” (https://www.infanciasprotagonistasunb.com.br/). She is a CNPq Research Productivity Fellow and the mother of two young women.

Dr Maggie Inchley is a Reader in Drama, Theatre and Performance at Queen Mary University of London with a background in teaching and directing. She is interested in political and cultural audibility, sonorous aspects of vocal performance, and developing strategies for intergenerational creative co-researching. Her publications include ‘It’s alive’: Towards a monsterized theatre with Beatbox Academy’s Frankenstein: How to make a monster’, Contemporary Theatre Review (2021). Maggie has recently written about the Notting Hill Carnival for The Conversation, and is Principal Investigator of the collaborative practice-based research project, The Verbatim Formula with care-experienced young co-researchers.

Dr Sylvan Baker, SFHEA is a Senior Lecturer in Community Performance Applied Theatre at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. He has over 30 years of experience in a diverse range of applied arts settings ranging from favela communities in Rio de Janeiro to NHS hospitals. His current projects focus on collaborative projects with participants as researchers rather than subject of research. He is co-founder and co lead investigator on the award-winning research project, The Verbatim Formula & Deputy Principal Investigator on Re-Star, an interdisciplinary research project enabling young researchers with ADHD and or autism to develop support resources for schools from a neurodivergent perspective. His recent publications include ‘Participatory translational science of neurodivergence: model for deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and autism research’ for the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Rosa Zerrudo is a dynamic, versatile community teaching artist whose intuitive interdisciplinary practice spans visual performance, filmmaking, cultural work, psychosocial care, and community organizing. Rooted in socially engaged art practice, she led pioneering community-driven initiatives, from children-centered biodiversity and eco-cultural art camps, community festivals, post-disaster work camps, ecotourism, and cultural restoration social enterprises. Her current work explores transformational art through children-centered climate art responses and the power of play.  She co-founded a co-creative psychosocial caregiving process evolving into Super Inday Art Project. 

As a community artist working in disadvantaged and marginalized communities, she integrated her BA in psychology (LCC-Manila) with MA community arts and applied theater (NYU-USA) and PhD in creative practice (QUT-Australia), a journey she describes as soulwork.