This presentation was delivered on October 20, 2022 at the Transformative Play Initiative Seminar 2022: Role-playing, Culture, and Heritage.
Description:
In this presentation I ask how role-playing in applied drama could be used as a method for researching organization culture, especially D&I (diversity and inclusion) processes. The presentation is a part of designing my doctoral research in Management studies. The goal of my dissertation is to produce knowledge about inclusion processes in the game industry. The main focus of my work is on cultural, emotional and embodied change and on how it can be managed in an organization. The research is committed by using applied drama workshops in a company. Within this presentation, I discuss how to use applied drama (combinations of role-playing, process drama, forum theater) as a method for researching organizational culture. And how they could maybe be used for leading a cultural change. Intra-action is a term by Karen Barad, and is used for example in performance studies. I want to use this term to shift the focus of D&I talk from inclusion (of a certain group) to inclusivity (of an organization). Barad’s terms can help us to see for example organizational conflicts as spaces where everyone is fluid and changing – instead of binary subject-object positioning. My professional background is in arts and literature/ cultural studies, and I am a drama educator. Before beginning this dissertation, I have used drama for example in schools, as a tool for discussing bullying. I have already gained silent knowledge on using drama and affecting/learning by play, but I still need to form my theoretical base on this. I hope the (often very sensitive or embodied) things I have learned will help me to do my research.
Bio:
Susi Mikael Nousiainen is a PhD student in Management studies in the University of Lapland. His background is in arts, literature studies and drama education. In his PhD research he studies diversity and inclusion management using forum theatre as a method. He is also designing a digital larp about the dynamics of hate speech in a counterspeech related research project.
Click here to read PDF of slides.
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This seminar is hosted by the Transformative Play Initiative in the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design, Uppsala University Campus Gotland. This seminar is made possible by financial support from the Sustainable Heritage Research Forum (SuHRF). The Transformative Play Initiative explores the use of analog role-playing games as vehicles for lasting personal and social change.
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Graphic Design by Liliia Chorna. Music by Elias Faltin. Video edited by Rezmo (Mohammad Mohammad Rezaie).