Dr. Erika Caterina Piazzoli
Assistant Professor, Education
Biography
I joined Trinity College Dublin in September 2015 as an Assistant Professor in Arts Education. In 2023 I received the Trinity Research Excellence Award, for the category 'Broaden our local and global impact'.
Since joining Trinity, I have served as acting strand leader for the Drama in Education strand (2015-2017), Dissertation Coordinator (2017-2019) and Global Engagement Director (2019-2023). Currently I serve as Coordinatator for the Master in Education (MEd) programme, a large programme which features 50 modules, including a Dissertation, across 12 strands.
Within the MEd programme, I teach on the 'Drama in Education' and 'Language Education' strands. I also teach Arts in Education within the Professional Master of Education (PME), a professional qualification designed for those who wish to work as post-primary teachers in Ireland. I supervise several postgraduate students at Master's, PhD and DEd level.
I am the principal investigator of two research projects, 'Sorgente: Performative Language Practice with Refugees and Migrants' funded by the Irish Research Council, and 'Lacunae: Embodying the Untranslatable', funded by the Trinity Long Room Hub. The Sorgente project was selected as one out of the 12 most innovative projects in Ireland, and featured as part of the 'Change Makers' documentary series, run by the Irish Universities Association, on Irish National Broadcaster RTE 1.
I have written four books, including a monograph (Palgrave, 2018), a co-authored book (Armando, 2023) and two edited books (Palgrave, 2024; Routlege, 2024), as well as several reports, book chapters and research articles.
I am part of the editorial board of Scenario: Journal of Performative Language Teaching, Learning and Research, which publishes two issues per year. I am chairing the conference committee for the 3rd International Scenario Conference, May 9-11 2024, Trinity College Dublin.
My research interests are within the areas of embodiment and aesthetic learning; applied linguistics; performative language pedagogy and research.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Erika Piazzoli, Modesto Corderi Novoa, Zoe Hogan, Performing Yuánfèn: An Exploration of Untranslatable Words in the Lacunae Project, Arts, 13, (1), 2024, p1 - 19
Erika Piazzoli, Presence as the Untranslatable, Scenario 3rd International Conference, Performative Language Teaching, Learning and Research, Trinity College Dublin, 9-11 May 2024, 2024
Conclusion: A poem and a painting in, editor(s)Erika Piazzoli, Fiona Dalziel , Performative Language Learning with Refugees and Migrants: Embodied Research and Practice in the Sorgente Project, Abingdon, Oxfon, UK, New York, US, Routledge, 2024, pp188-198 , [Erika Piazzoli, Fiona Dalziel, Rachael Jacobs]
Erika Piazzoli, Tania Canas, How might a dramaturgy of absence-presence be understood in community engaged processes?, Scenario 3rd International Conference, Performative Language Teaching, Learning and Research, Trinity College Dublin, 9-11/05/2024, 2024, Scenario: Journal of Performative Teaching, Learning and Research
Performative language practice and ethical principles in the Sorgente project in, editor(s)Erika Piazzoli, Fiona Dalziel , Performative Language Learning with Refugees and Migrants Embodied Research and Practice in the Sorgente Project, Abingdon, Oxon, and New York, US, Routledge, 2024, pp1 - 15, [Erika Piazzoli, Fiona Dalziel]
Arts Based Methodologies and Embodied Methods in, editor(s)Erika Piazzoli & Fiona Dalziel , Performative Language Learning with Refugees: Embodied Research and Practice in the Sorgente Project and Migrants:, Routledge, 2024, pp1 - 226, [Erika Piazzoli]
Erika Piazzoli, Fiona Dalziel, Performative Language Learning with Refugees and Migrants Embodied Research and Practice in the Sorgente Project, First, Abingdon, Oxon, UK and New York, USA, Routledge, 2024, 1 - 226pp
At the threshold of the ethical imagination: The 'not-a-fish' in, editor(s)Erika Piazzoli, Fiona Dalziel , Performative Language Learning with Refugees and Migrants, Abingdon, Oxfon, UK and New York, US, Routledge, 2024, pp57 - 73, [Erika Piazzoli]
Erika Piazzoli, Giulia Tiozzo, Il teatro nella glottodidattica: Il process drama dalla teoria alla pratica, Rome, Armando Editore, 2023, 1 - 420pp
Introduction in, editor(s)Erika Piazzoli, Rachael Jacobs, Garret Scally , Digital Displacement Re-inventing Embodied Practice Online During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave MacMillan, 2023, pp1-8 , [Erika Piazzoli]
O'Sullivan, C., Clotworthy, E., Nugent, M., Colleary, S., Keane, E., Piazzoli, E., Gubbins, E., Krakaur, L., Kerin, M., McCormick, S., & Heeran Flynn, L., Arts Alive: A literature review to support curriculum specification development for the area of Arts Education, Abingdon, Oxfon, UK, New York, US, National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, October, 2023, p1 - 245
Erika Piazzoli, Rachael Jacobs, Garret Scally, Digital Displacement: Re-inventing Embodied Practice Online During the COVID-19 Pandemic, First, Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave MacMillan, 2023, 1 - 197pp
Piazzoli, Erika & Schewe, Manfred, Arts education in Ireland: Visions of a performative teaching, learning and research culture, JOURNAL DE RECHERCHE EN ÉDUCATIONS ARTISTIQUES, 1, 2023, p72 - 83
Inside Outside and Beyond: Storytelling in the Digital Space with Young Refugees and Migrants in, editor(s)Erika Piazzoli, Rachael Jacobs, Garret Scally , Digital Displacement Re-inventing Embodied Practice Online During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Cham Switzerland, Palgrave MacMillan, 2023, pp21-45 , [Erika Piazzoli]
Erika Piazzoli, Autumn Brown, Fiona Dalziel, Rachael Jacobs, Garret Scally, Miriam Stewart, Sorgente Research Report: The Irish Case Studies, Trinity College Dublin, September 2023, 2023, p1 - 204
The Elements of Drama in Second Language Education: An Intercultural Perspective in, editor(s)Mary McAvoy, Peter O'Connor , The Routledge Companion to Drama in Education, Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge, 2022, pp391 - 407, [Erika Piazzoli]
Erika Piazzoli, 'Can we find stillness in movement, and movement in stillness?', On the Softening of Our World: 81 Sayings, https://www.schibri.de/978-3-8, Germany, Schibri-Verlag, 2021, -
Scenario: A Journal of Performative Teaching, Learning and Research, 15, 1, (2021), 1 - 145p, Susanne Even, Dragan Miladinović, Erika Piazzoli, Manfred Schewe, Fionn Woodhouse, [eds.], 1 year
Erika Piazzoli; Elif Kir Cullen, The double-edged sword of storytelling Performative language pedagogy with refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, Scenario: A Journal of Performative Teaching, Learning and Research, 15, (2), 2021, p1 - 26
Scenario: A Journal of Performative Teaching, Learning and Research, 15, 2, (2021), 1 - 147p, Erika Piazzoli, Fiona Dalziel, Garret Scally, [eds.], 1 year
Erika Piazzoli; Elif Kir Cullen, The meaning (s) of practice: Puzzling through performative language practice with refugee learners., Applied Theatre Research, 8, (2), 2020, p227 - 244
Taking the cloth off the telescope in, editor(s)S. Even, D. Miladinovic, & & B. Schmenk , Lernbewegungen inszenieren: Performative Zugange in der Sprach, Literatur und Kulturdidaktik, [Putting Learning Movements on Stage: Performative Approaches in Language, Literature and Culture Education.], Tubigen, Germany, Francke Attempto Verlag, 2019, pp23 - 32, [Erika Piazzoli]
Fiona Dalziel; Erika Piazzoli, 'It comes from you': Agency in adult migrants' language learning through process drama, Language Learning in Higher Education, Special issue: Language learning for and with refugees in higher education, 9, (1), 2019, p7 - 32
Erika Piazzoli; John Kubiak, 'The only learning I'm going to get': Students with intellectual disabilities learning a second language through performative pedagogy, Scenario: Journal for Performative Teaching, Learning, Research, 13, (1), 2019, p21 - 41
Erika Piazzoli, Embodying Language in Action: The Artistry of Process Drama for Second Language Education, Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan / Springer Nature, 2018
Voice as aesthetic element of language learning: Enhancing learners' performance through actors' voice training in, editor(s)Oliver Mentz, Micha Fleiner , The Arts in Language Teaching. International Perspectives: Performative - Aesthetic - Transversal, Münster, Lit Verlag, 2018, pp75 - 90, [Erika Piazzoli, Claire Kennedy]
Scenario: JOURNAL FOR PERFORMATIVE TEACHING, LEARNING, RESEARCH, 2, XI, (2017), Erika Piazzoli, Eucharia Donnery, [Guest Editor]
Luca Marrucci, Erika Piazzoli, Evaluating Learner Engagement in Arts Education: Perspectives from Music and Drama in Education, 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'17), Valencia, Spain, June 21-23 2017, http://dx.doi.org/10, 2017, pp1068 - 1075
Intercultural Dramatic Tension and Intercultural Engagement in, editor(s)John Crutchfield, Manfred Schewe , Performative Approaches to Foreign and Second Language Education: Intercultural Contexts and Perspectives, London, Multilingual Matters, 2017, pp172 - 196, [Erika Piazzoli]
Erika Piazzoli, Mapping an ethnography of change in teachers of Italian (L2) learning process drama, Teaching Italian Language and Culture Annual, N/A, (N/A), 2016, p96 - 114
Erika Piazzoli, Translation in Cross-language Qualitative Research: Pitfalls and Opportunities., Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts, 1, (1), 2015, p80 - 102
Erika Piazzoli, Reflection in Action in Cross-Language Qualitative Research, Qualitative Research Journal, 15, (1), 2015, p74 - 85
Sociocultural Theory, Process Drama and Second Language Learning in, editor(s)Davis, Susan; Ferholt, Beth; Grainger Clemson, Hannah; Satu-Mari Jansson; Ana Marianovic-Shane , Dramatic Interactions in Education: Vygotskian and Socio-cultural Approaches to Drama, Education and Research, New York, Bloomsbury, 2015, pp153 - 160, [Penny Bundy, Erika Piazzoli, Julie Dunn]
Process drama: The use of affective space to reduce language anxiety in the additional language learning classroom in, editor(s)Joe Winston, Madonna Stinson , Drama education and second language learning, Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge, 2014, pp77 - 94, [Erika Piazzoli]
Erika Piazzoli and Claire Kennedy, Drama: Threat or Opportunity? Managing the 'Dual Affect' in Process Drama for Additional Language Learning, Scenario, 1, 2014
Erika Piazzoli, The 'Authentic Teacher': Heathcote's Notion of 'Authenticity' in Second Language Teaching and Learning, Drama Research Journal: International Journal of Drama in Education, 5, (1), 2014
Erika Piazzoli, Engagement as Perception-In-Action in Process Drama for Teaching and Learning Italian as A Second Language., International Journal for Language Studies, 8, (2), 2014, p91 - 116
Erika Piazzoli, The Silent Gaps in the Data: What Do Participants Say about Engagement When Experiencing Process Drama to Learn an Additional Language, Drama Research Journal: International Journal of Drama in Education, 4, (1), 2013
Drama for Additional Language Learning: Dramatic Contexts and Pedagogical Possibilities in, editor(s)Michael Anderson and Julie Dunn , How drama Activates Learning: Contemporary Research and Practice, London, Continuum, 2013, pp208 - 225, [Madonna Stinson and Erika Piazzoli]
Film and Drama Aesthetics for Additional Language Teaching in, editor(s)Joe Winston , Second Language Learning Through Drama, London, David Fulton, 2012, pp134 - 148, [Erika Piazzoli]
Erika Piazzoli, Engage or Entertain? The Nature of Teacher/participant Collaboration in Process Drama for Additional Language Teaching, Scenario, 6, (2), 2012
Erika Piazzoli, Didattica Process Drama: Principi di Base, Estetica e Coinvolgimento, Italiano LinguaDue, 2011
Erika Piazzoli, Process Drama: The Use of Affective Space to Reduce Language Anxiety in the Additional Language Learning Classroom, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 16, (4), 2011, p557 - 554
Erika Piazzoli, Process drama and Intercultural Language Learning: An Experience of Contemporary Italy, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 15, (3), 2010, p385 - 402
Erika Piazzoli, Process Drama and Additional Language Teaching: Reflections on the Dante Alighieri Immersion Weekends, Applied Theatre Researcher IDEA Journal, 11, 2010, p1 - 12
Erika Piazzoli, Metodologia Process Drama e Competenza Interculturale, Culturiana, Settembre, 2009, p69 - 73
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Erika Piazzoli, Tania Canas, Youthreach students, 'abSENce-presenCE (SENCE)', Trinity College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, 2024, -
Erika Piazzoli, Ní Shíocháin, Tríona (2018). Singing Ideas:Performance, Politics and Oral Poetry., Review of Ní Shíocháin, Tríona (2018). Singing Ideas:Performance, Politics and Oral Poetry., by Ní Shíocháin, Tríona , Scenario: Journal of Performative Teaching, Learning and Research, 18, (1), 2018, p96-98
Erika Piazzoli, Process Drama: Aneddoto Contro la Sonnolenza, Officina: La rivista per insegnanti di ALMA Edizioni, Aprile, 2012
Erika Piazzoli, The Power of 'Teacher in Role', Journal of Modern Language Teachers' Association of Queensland, 49, 2010
Research Expertise
Description
My research focuses on the interplay between performative arts, embodiment and language education, an area known as performative language pedagogy. My PhD considered process drama and its influence on communicative, intercultural, affective, and aesthetic engagement in language education. I noted the impact of dramatic tension in reducing foreign language anxiety, and increasing intercultural engagement. This led me to advance the construct of 'intercultural dramatic tension'. My first book, "Embodying Language in Action" (Piazzoli, 2018), a seminal reference in the field, explored embodiment and intercultural dramatic tension. My chapter in "The Routledge Companion for Drama in Education" (Piazzoli, 2022) expanded this notion and became the basis for a study, which I led as PI, on 'Untranslatable Words' and dramatic tension. My PhD also highlighted the construct of 'aesthetic distance' for affective engagement in language learning. In my second book, "Il Teatro nella Glottodidattica" [Theatre in Language Teaching], I explored aesthetic distance, emotions and play. During the pandemic, I contemplated embodied practice in digital spaces, resulting in a third book, "Digital Displacement" (Piazzoli et al. 2023). Since 2017 I have worked with refugees, researching the impact of creative language practices on belonging and engagement. The Sorgente project, which I led as PI, was selected for the Change Makers series (RTE) and culminated in my fourth book, "Sorgente: Performative Language Teaching with Refugees and Migrants" (Piazzoli & Dalziel, 2024). Here I discussed belonging, creativity and ethical practice, advancing a framework on trauma-informed performative language pedagogy. Lately, I have been interested in the construct of 'presence' in performative language pedagogy, hence I convened an international conference on the topic. I am the PI of a practice-based project, AbSENce-PresenCE" (SENCE) exploring migrant youth perceptions of absence/presence in the community. Currently, I am editing two special issues (Scenario Journal) and writing a book proposal on 'presence'.Projects
- Title
- Lacunae: Embodying the Untranslatable
- Summary
- Lacunae's vision is channelling the disorientation brought about by the pandemic into an aesthetic dimension, through a performative exploration of Untranslatable Words.
- Funding Agency
- Trinity Long Room Hub
- Date From
- 08-2021
- Title
- Sorgente: Engaging asylum seekers, refugees and their teachers in performative language pedagogy
- Summary
- Sorgente's objective is to collaborate with City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDETB) through two of its services, the Youth and Education Service (YES) for Refugees and Migrants, and the Adult Education Service, to develop a second language learning programme based on Performative Language Pedagogy.
- Funding Agency
- Irish Research Council
- Date From
- 2019
- Title
- Embodiment in Arts-based Language Learning for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: Integrating Visual arts and Italian
- Summary
- This project focuses on exploring embodied learning working with first-year students enrolled in the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TCPID). We aim to consider the effects that embodiment can have on language learning processes, by specifically combining the syllabi of two modules of the ASIAP program in Term 2, 2018: Exploring Art, taught by John Kubiak, and Italian for Beginners, taught by Erika Piazzoli.
- Date From
- January 2017
- Date To
- ongoing
Recognition
Representations
External Examiner, Programme Level, MA Youth and Community Studies, University of Malta
External Examiner, Programme Level, MA English and Drama, MA Drama and Theatre in Education, The University of Warwick
Applied Theatre Research (ATR) Advisory Board
Invited advisor for project "LinguaPax: Towards an inclusive and multilingual theatre", as part of the study "Obstacles and opportunities in the artistic development of migrants and refugees" (https://www.languageofbirds.eu/scientific-research/)
Invited advisor for "Literacy Act: Basic literacy for adult migrants through Community Theatre" Erasmus Programme https://www.literacyact.eu/the-project/
PhD External Examiner, The University of Sydney
PhD External Examiner, The University of Auckland
Awards and Honours
Nominated for Excellence in Research Student Supervision
Nominated for Trinity Excellence in Teaching Award
Winner: Trinity Research Excellence Awards (Category: Broaden our local and global impact)
Nominated for Excellence in Teaching (Griffith University)
Nominated for Excellence in Teaching (Griffith University)
Nominated for Excellence in Teaching (Griffith University)
Nominated for Excellence in Teaching (Griffith University)
Nominated for Excellence in Teaching (Griffith University)
Griffith University Academic Excellence - Chancellor's Medal Nominee for excellence in Ph.D. Thesis (Awareded with no revisions)
Cassamarca Scholarship Award (Australasian Centre for Italian Studies (ACIS)
Memberships
International Drama in Education Research Institute (IDIERI)
International Drama in Education Association (IDEA)
Scenario: Performative Teaching, Learning and Research
Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI)
The Arts in Society