RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS & FUTURE AIMS
Perhaps as is usual, my relationship to research in the formal sense began late. It’s entirely possible that I wrote some excellent essays in high school and my undergraduate study, but it wasn’t until I actually understood what research actually was that I gained a passion for it. It seems that, delightfully, a firm grasp of methodology, critical reading, and decisively structured and funneled research brings more interesting and broadly useful results than the scattershot Google work which the Warriors of the Internet assume is the de rigeur of the traineer researcher. To whit, see below...
Research Practice & Praxis
As part of my Master of Fine Arts (Voice) all postgraduate students were required to take a course called Generating Research Through Practice. This course covered multidisciplinary methodologies of academic research from qualitative to quantitative approaches, action research, practice based research, case studies, as well as exploring decolonial and respectful strategies in approaching research involving Indigenous / First Nations cultures, peoples and practices. We were required to devise and conduct a complete research project in our field of practice and produce an academic paper on its outcomes. I conducted a pilot study focused on dialect pedagogy through the lens of cognitive linguistics, applying TESOL techniques for teaching pronunciation to working with actors. My paper was subsequently selected for presentation at the following year’s VASTA (Voice & Speech Teachers Association) Conference (2021).
This paper, 'Travelling to the Rhotic Universe', is available upon request. I resisted publication as due to the academic circumstances the pilot study involved only one subject and I am very keen to more formally conduct research along these lines in order to make the subject more accessible and more applicable for the discipline as a whole.
This paper, 'Travelling to the Rhotic Universe', is available upon request. I resisted publication as due to the academic circumstances the pilot study involved only one subject and I am very keen to more formally conduct research along these lines in order to make the subject more accessible and more applicable for the discipline as a whole.
Dialect Pedagogy
I have a powerful interest in scholarly engagement and development in the field of dialect pedagogy – an area which is sorely lacking in formal research. and which has great potential to be furthered through a position in North America. In 2021, I presented a paper on my work integrating cognitive linguistics and TESOL methodologies with dialect pedagogy at the annual Voice and Speech Teachers’ Association (VASTA) Conference – the first of many future contributions to the broader field I hope to make.
Dialect pedagogy, historically, has been a minefield of vague suppositions, racist pre-judgements, and general one-size-fits-all assumptions. In recent years Philip Thompson and his work with Dudley Knight, now known as Knight-Thompson Speechwork, has opened up the pathways to meaningfully developing a greater understanding of, and a consistent approach to teaching dialect to performers.
My research focus is in the field of cognitive linguistics – how do we currently understand the mechanisms by which we, as human beings, acquire linguistic sounds? Distinguish between similar sounds?
How can we, as dialect coaches, harness this new understanding in our work?
I have many thoughts!
Dialect pedagogy, historically, has been a minefield of vague suppositions, racist pre-judgements, and general one-size-fits-all assumptions. In recent years Philip Thompson and his work with Dudley Knight, now known as Knight-Thompson Speechwork, has opened up the pathways to meaningfully developing a greater understanding of, and a consistent approach to teaching dialect to performers.
My research focus is in the field of cognitive linguistics – how do we currently understand the mechanisms by which we, as human beings, acquire linguistic sounds? Distinguish between similar sounds?
How can we, as dialect coaches, harness this new understanding in our work?
I have many thoughts!
DECONSTRUCTING ‘STANDARDS’ / BUILDING NEW HOUSES & HIGHWAYS
I am passionate about understanding the historical and still persistent idea of what is ‘good’ or ‘standard’ in human speech and communication; Moreover, How this HAS influenced, and STILL DOES influence actors in training today; and specifically how this intersects with culture, history, identity, and artistic practice.
In my own teaching I aim to celebrate each individual person’s unique voice, sounds, idiolect, and to continually steer them from judgement to curiosity.
So I am deeply curious about how current and past approaches to vocal liberation / emancipation have helped or hindered these aims.
Research-wise, in my Australian context, I especially seek to understand what damage has been done to Indigenous artists in training. What harms have occurred, what boundaries were crossed/ignored/never sought? What Truth-Telling is needed?
The aim of this research is first, to create and strengthen in my own teaching practice, a de-colonial ethos. But, its primary goal is to centre the voices of the Indigenous and marginalised, and to comprehend better their needs in the context of artistic training. How can “we” as a whole, a gestalt, discover a basis for telling story, for connecting to community, for realising the same? What are the questions that I, cis white guy from Australia, never thinks to ask?
Because those questions will probably never stop emerging.
In my own teaching I aim to celebrate each individual person’s unique voice, sounds, idiolect, and to continually steer them from judgement to curiosity.
So I am deeply curious about how current and past approaches to vocal liberation / emancipation have helped or hindered these aims.
Research-wise, in my Australian context, I especially seek to understand what damage has been done to Indigenous artists in training. What harms have occurred, what boundaries were crossed/ignored/never sought? What Truth-Telling is needed?
The aim of this research is first, to create and strengthen in my own teaching practice, a de-colonial ethos. But, its primary goal is to centre the voices of the Indigenous and marginalised, and to comprehend better their needs in the context of artistic training. How can “we” as a whole, a gestalt, discover a basis for telling story, for connecting to community, for realising the same? What are the questions that I, cis white guy from Australia, never thinks to ask?
Because those questions will probably never stop emerging.
TRAUMA INFORMED / EMPOWERING TEACHING
I am especially interested in exploring more and more trauma-informed approaches to self-discovery, exploration and emotional experience. Several experiences in my own teaching have demonstrated the importance of clear frameworks which respect boundaries but still also foster rather than stifle creativity, courage and resilience.
I believe our voice is like a record of our lived experience, for better or worse. It contains within it, all the scratches, scars, triumphs, hopes and traumas of our life up until now,
If, (as I believe it does) our work as voice teachers involves some aspect of personal liberation, then my current unspoken, yet ongoing Action Research project involves exploring moments, fleeting or great, of profound discovery in my students.
Fleeting can be as light as “Ahh that’s why I don’t breathe there…!” or profound and fabulous as “This is my real voice. This is really me.”
While we need to feel safe in our training, we also need to feel safe to explore our boundaries - the regions which feel unsafe for us, the terrains which exclude, terrify, or unsettle us. This is the essence of our work as artists. Safe artists create safe and uninteresting work. Artists who dare, explore, attempt, reach, are never going to create something which we can predict.
Dare. Reach. Attempt.
I believe our voice is like a record of our lived experience, for better or worse. It contains within it, all the scratches, scars, triumphs, hopes and traumas of our life up until now,
If, (as I believe it does) our work as voice teachers involves some aspect of personal liberation, then my current unspoken, yet ongoing Action Research project involves exploring moments, fleeting or great, of profound discovery in my students.
Fleeting can be as light as “Ahh that’s why I don’t breathe there…!” or profound and fabulous as “This is my real voice. This is really me.”
While we need to feel safe in our training, we also need to feel safe to explore our boundaries - the regions which feel unsafe for us, the terrains which exclude, terrify, or unsettle us. This is the essence of our work as artists. Safe artists create safe and uninteresting work. Artists who dare, explore, attempt, reach, are never going to create something which we can predict.
Dare. Reach. Attempt.
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