In Reply to Goyal and Bansal.

Abstract

We thank the authors for their comments on our article. They posit that Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) can advance aspects of critical medical humanities, particularly via its capacity to upend traditional “medical humanities” modes of knowledge production. Indeed, it may be easier for most students to think, discuss, and write about oppression than to respond to racist or oppressive acts in real-time or take part in social justice movement-building efforts. However, integrating TO pedagogy into medical education may present insurmountable challenges. In a chapter of Games for Actors and Non-Actors1 entitled “Who Can Replace Whom?,” TO creator Augusto Boal clarifies the underlying conceit of Forum Theater, a type of TO mentioned by Goyal and Bansal. Boal writes, “… only spect-actors who are victims of the same oppression as the character (by identity or by analogy) can replace the oppressed protagonist to find new approaches or new forms of liberation….” TO, in other words, is a space that centers the decisions and actions of those who have been oppressed. It is not primarily intended to teach those with more privileged identities how to intervene in the lives of people with marginalized identities (e.g., bystander intervention training), a distinction not explicitly made by Goyal and Bansal. Since the purpose of TO is to empower oppressed communities, housing TO workshops within medical institutions raises several concerns. First, it runs the risk that the method will be co-opted or facilitated inappropriately, since it should be conducted by or in partnership with community organizations. Second, medical educators may be unprepared to navigate the complicated power dynamics inherent in the practice of TO. And yet one could imagine that TO might be adapted to a medical education setting in which medical students of color who experienced racism on the wards could reclaim or renegotiate these experiences of oppression. That said, it remains unclear whether or how medical students can fit into the equation of TO. Exploring the identity politics inherent in the use of the technique—who it is for, who it should primarily benefit—is a place to start.