SHORT COURSE ON RESEARCH IN VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS

Research in visual and performing arts has been heavily dominated by social science research paradigm. It is clearly evident that research carried out in theatre, dance, cultural and ritual studies and other related disciplines for the last four decades has been conducted through the social science research model which is intrinsically linked to positivism. In this social science model of research, knowledge is defined as something that is existing outside the researchers’ world and the objective of doing a research is to extricate this hidden knowledge and present it in an accepted written form. This written form is the classical way of writing a thesis or a dissertation. FGS at UVPA has also been following this classical model of social science research and has provided guidelines and supervision accordingly. However, with the advent of poststructuralist thought and feminist intervention in cultural studies, the question of knowledge and the researcher’s subjectivity within the research paradigm have been heavily debated and contested. Further, especially in visual and performing arts, new research methodologies and tools have been re-invented and re-interpreted in order for ‘practitioner-researchers’ to extricate new knowledge paradigms they generate through artistic and reflective practices. With these development and arguments, research in visual and performing arts needs to re-think and re-access its epistemological and knowledge generation. The ongoing developments of new way of looking at knowledge and knowledge development in arts-based research have been a turning point in creative practices. Hence, the FGS at UVPA proposes a short course on research in Visual and Performing Arts, bringing novel approaches to research in creative arts practices.