Research
My research interests revolve around a range of issues relevant to the field of art for social change and community-engaged art: theory and practice in the field; ethics and social change; approaches to pedagogy; evaluative process; non-verbal communication and innovation strategies – in short, I am interested in how arts-infused facilitative processes can be integrated into diverse agendas of change.
In my practice and research, I have been influenced by the work of Paolo Friere, Augusto Boal, John Dewey, Arlene Goldbard, Beverly Naidus, C. Wright Mills, Erving Goffman, Ben Shahn, Clifford Geertz, William Cleveland and David Diamond.
Recent projects
My current focus is on the national research project, Art for social change: An integrated research program in teaching, evaluation and capacity-building. In addition to supervising the project, my direct involvement is with the research “pods” working on pedagogical approaches to the field, evaluation strategies and the ethical dimensions of social-change work in the arts.
I am also a consultant to several research projects based in Ecuador led by Dr. Annalee Yassi, Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Health and Capacity Building. Dr. Yassi’s projects are concerned with popular health education strategies, health equity and innovative initiatives, primarily social circus.
In 2015, I created an arts and culture plan for Vancouver’s West End that included an extended research process including public arts-infused workshops and dialogues.