Experience in Arts-Based Research and Practice-Led Inquiry

Research using arts-based methods is a new concept I've learned since starting at NYU. Leavy (2017) describes arts-based research as "methodological tools used by researchers across the disciplines during any or all phases of research, including problem generation, data or content generation, analysis, interpretation, and representation. These tools adapt the tenets of the creative arts in order to address research questions holistically" (p. 4). The term holistically really sticks in my mind and forms the basis of my understanding of arts-based research (ABR). ABR allows the researcher and participants to engage in data collection and presentation of knowledge in a way that seems more attainable, and frankly more interesting, than traditional academic research. As Barone and Eisner (2011) write, ABR "exploits the capacities of expressive form to capture the qualities of life that impact what we know and how we live" (p. 5). In this way, ABR can help gather and present research in a way that is both more accessible and more in tune with the natural and creative ways we all actually move through and observe the world. Below I outline some of my experiences using these methods for research.

In the Fall of 2020 I took the course The Ethnoactor & Verbatim Performance with Joe Salvatore. I had always had an interest in verbatim documentary theatre, especially studying the work of Anna Deavere Smith in undergraduate courses, and I had worked with students to create a couple of documentary theatre pieces, but I had never formally learned the tools of the art form. In this course I learned how to use the theatrical form of verbatim performance as a tool for inquiry. My culminating project for the course was a media artifact project, where I portrayed a clip of Christian writer and YouTube personality Becket Cook giving a speech at Biola University in La Mirada, California where he talks about how he was able to turn away from a life of homosexuality because of his Christian faith. I was curious to see what would happen when I (a very open, out-and-proud gay man) inhabited Mr. Cook's words and gestural pattern, and would I discover anything new about his point of view? My research question for this project was “Do our perceptions of the beliefs Cook is expressing change when they are presented through another person?” with the secondary question “Does Cook personally believe the things he is saying about being gay, or is there something else underpinning what he is saying?” Below is the original media artifact, my verbatim investigation of Mr. Cook, as well as a pre- and post-performance analysis.

In the Spring of 2021 I took Creating Ethnodrama & Documentary Theatre with Joe Salvatore. This course continued our work from the Ethnoactor class. We learned how to create an ethnodrama from a research question. As a culminating project, me and a group of classmates created an original documentary theatre piece based on internet cancel culture. We came up with the research questions "What are the major consequences of cancel culture in contemporary American society? How does an individual’s political and personal ideologies inform their point of view on cancel culture?" Using these questions to guide our inquiry, we interviewed several participants, and compiled sections of those interviews into an ethnodrama entitled "An Eye for an Eye." Below is the finished script.

In the Fall of 2020, I took the course Methods and Materials of Educational Theatre Research with Amy Cordileone. For the culminating project of this course, I had the fantastic opportunity to work with Director of Education and Artist Programs Lucia Scheckner and Senior Manager of Education Programs Ashley Renee Thaxton-Stevenson to research the YouthWorks program at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX) in Brooklyn, NY. The purpose of this arts-based, participatory case study was to closely examine the YouthWorks program in an attempt to understand the "essence" of the program, and to help discern the impact of the YouthWorks program as it has existed. Below is the final paper for this project.