Research in focus: George Belliveau

Name:

George Belliveau

Title:

Professor and Head

Department/Unit:

Education/Language and Literacy Education

Are you Faculty or Staff?

Faculty

Location:

Vancouver

What year did you start working at UBC?

2004

Provide an overview of your research in 75 words or less:

I focus on Research-based Theatre, a creative and innovative methodology to communicate research to the public using the medium of theatre. This innovative approach of sharing and staging stories through theatre allows non-expert audiences to grasp complex research, and the needs of marginalized communities in ways that are vivid, compelling, and memorable. I have worked with a number of partners, including military veterans, refugees, social workers, engineers, occupational therapists, mental health workers, to name some.

What first motivated you (or motivates you) to conduct your research?

Theatre is often reserved for a select and often exclusive audience, and I wanted to find ways to expand the power and reach of this medium. Research-based Theatre maintains the aesthetics of theatre by bringing new partners into play. Partnering and collaborating with other researchers in different disciplines allows for exciting insights and new ways of looking at research.

What do you hope will change as a result of this research?

I hope that researchers will consider alternative ways of representing their research by partnering with artists. This form of knowledge translation allows insightful work to be shared with the public in an accessible manner, prompting more discussions. Theatre has the capacity to simultaneously depict the cognitive and emotive, drawing listeners inside the work and creating the conditions to care as they journey through the research story.

Are there any research collaborators you’d like to acknowledge and why?

Dr. Marv Westwood has been doing important research and clinical work with military veterans for a number of years. Our partnership at UBC of bringing Counseling Psychology and Theatre together has been a pivotal model. His belief (and trust) that theatre could provide a valuable asset in contributing to the therapeutic journey of healing with military veterans has opened up many other important interdisciplinary partnerships using theatre.

What have you learned during your research that has surprised you the most?

Each project is unique and learning is continual. What happens in one Research-based Theatre project cannot necessarily be replicated in another one. The research, community members, collaborating artists, and phenomena is individual to each project. It’s the coming together, negotiating and trusting one another in each project that reveals the process and outcomes.