Towards Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging: Critical Posthumanism, New Materialism, and Theatre Pedagogies Transversalities

Abstract

This article maps the overlap of critical posthumanism, new materialism, and a specific theatre pedagogy called the neutral mask and suggests that this transversality can help further the aims of equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging (EDIB), especially in the training of pre-service and in-service teachers. I take up Braidotti’s (2019, 2020) theoretical figurations of nomadic subjectivity, politics of location, and new materialism to Carter's (2022) reconciliatory praxis and auto-phenomenology, and Lecoq’s (2000) physical training for actors called the neutral mask to do this. I argue that the entanglement of these threads of theory and practice in the form of professional development for teachers prior to EDIB training provides them with an embodied experience of dis/identification that may help them perceive instances of inequity, racism, exclusion, and isolation that they otherwise might not have seen.