The role of theatre and embodied knowledge in addressing race in South African higher education

Abstract

This article examines the role of theatrical performance as a means of addressing the embodied and spatio-temporal manifestations of race and racism within South African higher education. As part of Jansen's proposal for a post-conflict pedagogy in South Africa, the article argues for the development and inclusion of embodied knowledges as an appropriate means of addressing issues of diversity and social transformation on South African campuses. Through a case study of one theatrical production aimed at tackling issues of diversity with incoming first year students at Rhodes University, it is argued that it was the embodied processes that the student performers in the production did that enabled them to interrogate the complexities of power and identity. The article suggests a move from intellectualised and abstracted engagements with race towards pedagogical methods that involve embodiment that, in this case, facilitated significant shifts in thinking about race and racial privilege amongst white students.

Keywords:

• performance
• student identities
• active learning
• social identity
• cross-cultural issues in teaching and learning