Thinking Spaces 2020-21: Taiwo Afolabi

This Thinking Spaces talk, with guest Taiwo Afolabi, took place on February 26, 2021.

This presentation, entitled “Ethical Questioning in Research: Insight from an Applied Theatre Project,” examines ethical questioning as an inquiry process germane to making ethical choices necessarily for an ethical practice. Focusing on reflexivity through reflection-before, in, and on -action, I consider ethical questioning as a framework to amplify resistance, self-determination and decolonization in the process of writing and doing research. I conclude my presentation by case studying an applied theatre project among refugees and new immigrants in Canada to investigate the implications of ethical questioning for applied theatre research and other forms of socially engaged creative practice.

Taiwo Afolabi, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He is an applied theatre practitioner with a decade of experience working across a variety of creative and community contexts in over dozen countries across four continents. His work centralizes around participation and ethics in community creative practice among vulnerable populations such as refugees (in Canada) and internally displaced people (in Nigeria). Through qualitative and Indigenous creative methodologies, he examines themes of resurgence, resistance, self-determination and decolonization. His practice and research interests include education, decolonization, socially-engaged creative practice, and research ethics. He is the founding artistic director of Theatre Emissary International, Nigeria and a research associate at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.