Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2018, Theater

This paper explores Theatre for Development (TfD) as a research and development tool through a case study conducted in the Mathare slum of Nairobi, Kenya. Mathare is densely populated, with over half-a-million people in one square kilometer. Sanitation and water systems are poorly constructed and often controlled by cartels. This leads to health and security issues that disproportionately affect women. Development initiatives that aim to address these issues often ignore the role that community members play in development. TfD, as I modify it for this project, is an adaptation of Augusto Boal's forum theatre that generates community-led solutions to specific development issues. Using TfD, I rely on stakeholder participation to pursue a holistic research methodology that informs initiatives aimed at improving sanitation challenges. My research seeks to answer two questions: What information surfaces as a result of creating a TfD workshop in Mathare? And how does TfD succeed and fail as a methodology applied in Mathare? I present the data collected through the process of developing the workshop, conducting the workshop, and participant feedback. The data show that the practice of TfD in Mathare generates nuanced information on limitations to sanitation, and illustrates how gendered limitations restrict women's ability to make choices about their own sanitation. The data also show that TfD is useful in empowering participants to guide community dialogue around issues and ways of addressing them, and clarifying areas of misinterpretation. However, challenges can arise with budgeting time and negotiating a language barrier. Overall, I will show that TfD is a research and development tool that empowers stakeholders in the process of information collection, and allows them to invest directly and specifically in the desired outcomes.

Committee: Edna Wangui Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: African Studies; Environmental Studies; Gender; Theater

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2019, Curriculum and Instruction (Education)

A lack of research exists in the field of equity related studies, as well as the use of critical pedagogy for young adolescent conscientization and liberation in middle level education. Additionally, virtually no studies exist on the experiences with oppression of rural Appalachian young adolescents. In this research I sought to fill this gap through a focus on the following research questions: 1.) What forms of oppression do rural Appalachian young adolescents experience as told through Theatre of the Oppressed? 2.) What solutions to oppression do rural Appalachian young adolescents propose as told through Theatre of the Oppressed? Eighteen rural Appalachian young adolescents from two school sites in the Appalachian region of Southeast Ohio participated in this study. The participants attended an afterschool Theatre Club two days a week, in which they participated in Augusto Boals' Theatre of the Oppressed activities in an effort to name oppressions they faced and rehearse solutions to oppression through a Forum Theatre. Data were collected through observation, document analysis, and semi-structured individual interviews. The methodological theory guiding the analysis and presentation of findings for this study was a portraiture methodology. Through this analysis, themes of oppression, including racism, adultism, sexism, and bullying were identified. Additionally, common solutions to oppression included telling teachers, telling parents, and acting as upstanders.

Committee: Lisa Harrison PhD (Advisor); Theodore Hutchinson PhD (Committee Member); Adah Ward-Randolph PhD (Committee Member); Matthew Felton-Koestler PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Middle School Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2008, Educational Leadership

There are two tensions in critical pedagogy. One is between the universalistic and the particularistic critical pedagogy models. The other tension exists between the community and the schools. Critical pedagogy as universalistic is good, but we need to know how critical pedagogy can be used more specifically on American soil by African Americans. Secondly, we also need to reclaim education as a community project. Understanding SNCC's social dramas through the lens of Theatre of the Oppressed as reflected in Critical Pedagogical practice helps educators understand how they can best engage the community in reclaiming the task of educating its youth. This dissertation is a social history of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and its relationship to Augusto Boal's, Theatre of the Oppressed. Theatre of the Oppressed (Boal, 1979) was developed out a community based educational program that uses theatre as a tool for social and cultural transformation. I focused on SNCC's several freedom acts of the early 1960's: The Sit-Ins, Freedom Summer, Freedom Schools, and the Free Southern Theatre. SNCC, a student lead social movement, was established February 1, 1960 with the first sit-in and is considered by many historians as the catalyst for social change during the civil rights movement that increased voting registration, civic engagement, collective and individual transformation. This dissertation thus represents a recovery of memory, and an attempt to make use of this historical memory to re-think critical pedagogy as dramaturgical and community-based. In re-covering and re-working the memory of SNCC's militant pedagogy from the early 1960s, I am informed by Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, which in turn is related to Paulo Freire's pedagogy of the Oppressed, and through Freire to the work of Henry Giroux and others in critical pedagogy. An historical analysis was conducted on these freedom acts by examining archival data, interviews and secondary s (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dennis Carlson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Mary Jane Berman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kate Rousmaniere Ph.D. (Committee Member); Denise Taliaferro Baszile Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lisa Weems Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Curricula; Education History; Educational Theory

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2007, Psychology

Research has shown that Women of Size are victims of particularly strong stigmatization (Hebl & Heatherton, 1998; Myers & Rothblum, 2005; Neumark-Sztainer, Story, & Faibisch, 1998; Quinn & Crocker, 1998; Wang, Brownell, & Wadden, 2004). Much of this previous research has focused on the ways in which thin individuals view People of Size in hypothetical situations (by looking at employment applications, or fictitious patient files, etc.). The goals for this project were: to work with Women of Size to learn how being members of this stigmatized group influences their lives; to explore how Theatre of the Oppressed methods can address the needs of a stigmatized group who may have internalized the stigma; to explore both the individual stories and shared meanings of the experiences of Women of Size; and to conduct research that acknowledges that in order to understand stigmatization, you need to talk to the victims of the stigma. It is the supposition of this project that experiencing fat stigmatization has a Silencing effect on women. In order to address this issue and get around this Silencing, a Theatre of the Oppressed based methodology, along with interviews, was used with a group of Women of Size. Theatre of the Oppressed is an activist theatre method which involves engaging in theatre games to get participants comfortable with exploring issues in a physical manner, creating images that are visual responses to a prompt such as “Show me what it is like to be a Woman of Size”, and, arranging a scene that has a conflict in it, with the goal of repeating the scene several times while trying out possible solutions to the conflict. Eleven women were interviewed about their experiences as Women of Size, 6 of whom then participated together in the Theatre of the Oppressed workshop. Results indicated that these women had many experiences with stigmatization in their lives that led to internalization of negative messages. Particularly strong responses came in terms of experie (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ann Fuehrer (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2003, Psychology

This research project looked at the metaphorical conception of Voice in undergraduate women by using Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) methods. The project took place over a five-week period during the Spring of 2003. Participants took part in four weekly meetings and two 4-hour workshops on the final weekend of the project. During the project, various resources on feminism, Voice, and TO were read and discussed, and several writing assignments were given. The culmination of the project involved working on a TO Forum Theatre piece based upon the issues brought up in the readings and discussions. The project shows that Voice is a valuable research topic for Social Psychologists and demonstrates how TO methods can be used to gather qualitative narrative feminist data.

Committee: Ann Fuehrer (Advisor) Subjects: Psychology, Social