Arts Research

My research brings forward unseen truths about the potential of youth drama to act as a change agent that have been buried, hidden, or side-lined due to white supremacy. As I learned directing the The Laramie Project, an interview-based play devised by Moisés Kaufman and Members of Tectonic Theatre Company after the brutal murder of Matthew Shephard in 1998, we live in a world of multiple truths. If we favour one truth over another, we inevitably reproduce harmful paradigms that perpetuate oppression and white supremacy. Instead, research encourages us to see multiple truths through a prism. Light reflects different colours, certain shapes come forward and others recede depending on how we move the prism. It is a dynamic way to acknowledge and value multiple truths and stands in contrast to colonial either/or thinking.

Below are excerpts from four research projects I conducted while at Columbia University. Please click on the links below to learn more about these research threads and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’d like to learn more or collaborate.