Multimodal Collaborative Storytelling: Theorizing Disability (In)justice in Context and Community

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Intersectional Educational Justice (Table 23)

Abstract

In order to co-design for educational justice, it is important to form situated understandings of how racism and ableism circulate within a particular context and community. In this paper, I explore how multimodal collaborative storytelling supported racially and neuro-diverse groups of high school students and adults in this kind of theorizing within the specific context of theater education. Participants’ stories highlight how capitalism circulates in typical theater education practices to emphasize “productions” over the needs of particular students involved and differentially value bodyminds based on socially-constructed ideas of productivity. Further, through storytelling, participants positioned themselves not just as theorists but as agents of change. Results suggest multimodal collaborative storytelling as a promising method for theorizing with community.

Author

• Maddie N. Zdeblick, University of Washington