Exploring economic imaginaries through drama

Julia Fries a PhD student in educational drama. Her PhD project explores how drama can support us in going beyond current paradigm in how we think about sustainability and economy. Drama is used as a resource to expand our imaginaries for how sustainable societies could be organized. The study is performed within higher education where drama as a learning tool is implemented into courses on sustainable development and sustainable economy.

The research also involves inviting the clown figure as a contributor into research. By looking at research with the perspective of the clown, one can see other things and find new, usually more radical, angles. Julia uses her clown alter-ego to get 'clown-eyes' on her own research, but the clown is also an exploration of its own on how we can face the times we are living in and handle the process of grasping the magnitude of the environmental situation. A third dimension on the clown-work is exploring how it is for students to meet the clown figure, and even to step into their own clown characters and explore theirs views of economy and sustainability from inside the clown character.

Julia will obtain her PhD from Stockholm University. Arjen Wals from ELS acts as an external supervisor. Prof Eva Österlind is her main supervisor in Sweden.