A new project led by University of Brighton’s Professor Helen Johnson, Visiting Researcher with the Institute for Human Development and Well-Being (IHDW), seeks to develop a collaborative, participatory research method that capitalizes on the respective strengths of spoken word artists and social scientific researchers. The project is funded by the UK’s National Centre for Research Methods and the University of Brighton, in association with Professor Claudia Mitchell, Director of IHDW.
The research being carried out this July and August at McGill University’s Participatory Cultures Lab acts as a pilot study, exploring how these expert artist/academic groups can work together effectively. For this pilot, we are working with 8 young spoken word poets and 4 spoken word artist-educators to explore issues around prejudice and discrimination. The study will produce creative explorations of personal experiences of discrimination, which are based on a firm foundation of extant academic knowledge and on a robust working knowledge of qualitative research methods.
The co-researchers will be trained in qualitative research methods by Helen Johnson and coached in poetry performance/writing by experienced, local artist-educators, Cat Kidd, Deanna Smith, Tanya Evanson and Chris Masson. They will create a chapbook of social scientifically-informed poems on discrimination, and deliver a spoken word performance at Mainline Theatre on Sunday 14th August (20.00-22.00). The performance will be free and open to all, but tickets will be limited.