Grant Recipients
Reina Neufeldt, Conrad Grebel University College, Peace and Conflict Studies
Andrew Houston, Communication Arts
(Project timeline: September 2025 - April 2027)
Description
This project explores the effects of pedagogically pairing relational aesthetics with critical dialogue to constructively engage across difference and polarization on campus.
Relational aesthetics involves students in collaborative artistic creation, challenging traditional representations of identity, language, the body, and place in contemporary discourse and media. Critical dialogue emphasizes building relationships and understanding through storytelling, empathic listening, perspective-taking while attending to constitutive effects of power and privilege. Combining pedagogies in THPERF 490/PACS 302 supports students’ ability to engage difference with care and creativity by building ‘architectures’ of co-reliance, trust, and respect, as well as generating dialogic projects that will be shared at a public event.
We propose studying this pedagogical innovation for its effects. How is the pedagogy reflected in student projects? What broader outcomes emerge from projects on campus? To answer these questions, applicants will gather and analyze data from a digital archive, student logs, reflections utilizing outcome harvesting.
Research Questions
- How do student projects combine relational aesthetics and dialogue?
- Are there broader effects produced by course projects using relational aesthetics and critical dialogue to engage audiences on difficult topics? More specifically, what, if any, changes are evidenced in an outcome harvesting of behaviour and attitude changes at the conclusion of the course?