Matthew Reason. Power With: Approaches to Epistemic Justice in Arts Research
 

Following Foucault, we have a strong appreciation of the intersection of knowledge and power. We can also identify the ways in which the universities in which we operate as researchers are in the business of controlling, gatekeeping and delimiting forms of knowledge and therefore forms of power. Within this some ways of knowing – and therefore also some peoples and their lived experiences and expertise – are delegitimised and pushed to the margins. As Miranda Fricker puts it, epistemic injustice describes the experience of ‘people who are wronged in their capacity as knowers.’ To what extent is it possible to begin to address epistemic injustice while simultaneous working from within the university?  
This lecture will explore examples of work with which I have been involved that has – perfectly, hesitantly, progressively – sought to enact approaches that address these concerns. First, I will discuss structural approaches, within my role as Director of the Institute for Social Justice at York St John University. Here we have begun to consider what might constitute a co-productive research culture. How can not just research participation, but also research commissioning, design, authorship and ownership be done in co-production with communities and stakeholders. I will then present a case study from my own arts-based research. This has been to take an inclusive and creative approach to researching with learning disabled and autistic artists. Here we have sought to avoid models of deficit and vulnerability and find ways of involving people with learning disabilities in all aspects of the process. The case study will work through a series of challenges in processes of design, purpose, process, control and dissemination. It’ll also reflect on the centrality of creative methods within this process and share some of the emerging outputs. From these I will draw out insights that we might apply to our collective attempts to ensure that both universities and our own individual research shifts so that we utilise knowledge to enact power with rather than power over? 

BIO
Matthew Reason is Professor of Theatre and Director of the Institute for Social Justice at York St John University (UK). His research focuses on politically and socially engaged arts practice, audience research and co-productive and participatory research methodologies. He is interested in research as a creative and relational activity and the relationships between research and activism and epistemic justice.   
Central to his work is collaborative partnerships with arts organisations, with examples including with Imaginate, Mind the Gap, Teatrecentrum and Theatre Hullabaloo.  
He has received research funding from the Arts and Humanities and Natural Environment research councils, including for a current project titled I’m Me, which explores themes of identity, representation and voice with learning disabled and autistic artists.  
Major publications include Documentation, Disappearance and the Representation of Live Performance (Palgrave 2006), The Young Audience: Exploring and Enhancing Children’s Experiences of Theatre (Trentham/IOE Press 2010), Kinesthetic Empathy in Creative and Cultural Contexts (co-edited with Dee Reynolds, Intellect 2012), Experiencing Liveness in Contemporary Performance (co-edited with Anja Mølle Lindelof, Routledge 2016), Applied Practice: Evidence and Impact Across Theatre, Music and Dance (co-edited with Nick Rowe, Bloomsbury 2017) and The Routledge Companion to Audiences and the Performing Arts (co-edited with Conner, Johanson and Walmsley, Routledge 2022). For further information visit www.matthewreason.com 

• Program, Æstetisk Seminar E2024
• Plakat, Æstetisk Seminar E2024

Æstetisk Seminar E2024 er tilrettelagt af Christiane Særkjær og Jan Løhmann Stephensen, Institut for Kommunikation og Kultur, Aarhus Universitet.