Morris is an Emeritus Associate
Professor in the Drama Department at the University of Cape Town, where she
was head of the department until 2003. Prior to her retirement, Morris served
as the Postgraduate Programmes Convenor for Drama.
Her recent research has focused
on applied drama and theatre in formal schooling, as well as on the
transmission, production, distribution and reception of theatre originating
from Xhosa-speaking townships in Cape Town.
Morris contributed to Playing
Culture: Conventions and Extensions of Performance (2014), a Theatrical Event
Working Group (International Federation of Theatre Research) essay
collection, of which she was also an editor. She also has two other essays
forthcoming in other collections. Morris edited a special issue, Applied
Theatre, healing and trauma, on the 2013 Drama for Life Africa Research
Conference, for the South African Theatre Journal due out later this year.
She has previously published in Theatre Research International, RiDE: The
Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance and the South African Theatre
Journal.
Morris supervises postgraduate
students and is currently in her second term on the International Federation
of Theatre Research Executive Committee. She continues to examine externally
and has been a guest teacher on the Masters programme in International
Performance Research run by the Universities of Warwick, Helsinki, Belgrade
and Amsterdam; for the Magnet Theatre Educational Trust and the Western Cape
Education Department. She has also consulted to the Western Cape Government’s
Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, Arts and Culture Component.
Morris visits the Drama for
Life Division in the Wits School of Arts in March and will deliver a public
lecture on Tuesday, 12 March at 13:00 in the Wits Downstairs Theatre titled Arts
education in schools: Does arts education help teachers and learners, or
conceal substantive teaching and learning problems?
At different times and in
different contexts, arts education, and drama and theatre in particular, have
been recruited to support claims of educational innovation, effective teacher
training, and boosted schooling outcomes. In reality, however, the arts are
often marginalised in schools and by teachers because they demand particular
spaces, resources, times, sound proofing and courageous teachers. They
are perceived by many as ‘not worth the effort’, or not central to
schooling’s core business of inculcating literacy and numeracy. Where is common
ground to be found between such conflicting viewpoints? In this lecture
Morris will engage with these questions.
“We are confident that Wits’
research footprint and its output will be enhanced through the Distinguished
Scholars Programme, but we are also hopeful that this Programme will
contribute more broadly to South Africa’s research goals and expertise.
Moreover, this programme will help us develop the next generation of
researchers,” says professor Adam Habib, Wits vice-vhancellor and principal.
Drama for Life is a unique,
internationally acclaimed postgraduate division of applied drama and theatre studies, drama education and drama therapy studies in the Wits School of
Arts.
For more information, visit www.dramaforlife.co.za.
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