My research explores the implications of embodiment for learning and teaching, building on traditions that highlight process, affect, and emotions as central to how learning takes shape. The work is informed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s philosophy of becoming, Mark Johnson’s Dewey-inspired idea on embodied sensory, affective, and motor capacities, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang’s research on affective neuroscience and the impact of emotion on learning, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow, and James Thompson’s work on affect in applied theatre, among others. With a background in teaching language and theatre, I position myself as a bricoleur researcher and examine theatre, William Shakespeare, and arts-based approaches as embodied pathways to language engagement. My work spans participatory studies in English Additional Language (EAL) teacher training and upper secondary school, an auto-ethnographic performance study on The Tempest by Shakespeare, and a philosophical qualitative inquiry into pedagogical spaces and teaching designs focused on Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of striated and smooth spaces. Through these studies, I seek to expand our understanding of how embodiment, affect, and creative practice shape language learning and teaching experiences. The project is a collaboration with ShINE: Shakespeare in Education and supervised by Professor Delilah Bermudez Brataas and Dr Michael Finneran.
