Eva van Roekel Cordiviola

This workshop aims to revitalise ethnographic practice by harnessing the power of performance to embody, unsettle, move, and provoke. It is an invitation to challenge disciplinary boundaries and create something resonant beyond the page. Held at a dynamic community arts centre in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (The Netherlands) this workshop will train participants in theatre-making techniques that transform ethnographic material into engaging stage performances. Addressing the growing desire within anthropology to explore non-textual forms of public engagement, the workshop will support the emergence of a new cohort of theatre-making anthropologists within the EASA Creative Anthropologies Network. Participants will develop skills to produce immersive and interactive performances that will premiere at the EASA 2026 conference in Poznan and be further implemented in future conferences. Grounded in affect theory, creative anthropology, and drama-based pedagogy, the workshop draws on Giordano and Pierotti’s Affect Ethnography (2024) and Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed (1978). It is open to postgraduates and independent scholars from anthropology and cognate disciplines. Our community is drawn internationally with participants coming from Berkeley University of California, OP Jindal University, India, University of Arizona, SOAS University of London, University College Cork, Dublin City University, Queen’s University Belfast, VU Amsterdam, Leipzig University, University of Amsterdam.