Assoc. Prof. Kerry Chappell

Keynote Abstract:

From Wise Humanising Creativity to (posthumanising) creativity

In this presentation, Kerry will demonstrate that existing concepts of creativity in education only go so far in addressing rapid, unpredictable 21st century changes and accompanying policy and practice challenges. She will explain, critique and shift away from humanist conceptualisations such as ‘Wise Humanising Creativity’ and argue that (posthumanising) creativity as a new articulation, allows us to consider and action creativity to meet these challenges. This new idea can overcome problems of humanistic conceptualisations, as it includes a fuller range of creative ‘actants’, incorporates a different, emergent ethics and allows the future too to emerge, rather than ‘be-designed’. Kerry will offer practice-based examples of (posthumanising) creative education from STEAM and dance contexts, as well as from teaching in Higher Education, bringing alive how this theory and practice can address the challenges we face.

Short CV of the Speaker:

Kerry Chappell is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education at University of Exeter, where she leads the MA Education Creative Arts Programme and the Creativity and Emergent Educational futures Network. She is co-convenor of the British Educational Research Association Creativities Special Interest Group and Associate Editor of the Thinking Skills and Creativity journal. Her research focuses on creativity in education, specifically in the arts and transdisciplinary settings, and how creativity contributes ethically to educational futures. Kerry is currently PI on projects investigating creative pedagogy in Higher Education transdisciplinary intensives (EU Erasmus +) and creative methodologies in Dance and Health settings (Wellcome Trust). She has also just produced an ESRC-funded Science Arts Creative Teaching Resource for UK teachers. She is a visiting lecturer at the Danish National School of Performing Arts, an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and a Dance in Devon board member. All of her work is informed by her ongoing practice as a dance artist with Devon-based Dancelab Collective.