RE-THINKING THE HUMAN RACE IN ACADEMIA: Tracking Where the Expressive Arts Movement Leads Open Access

Abstract

This thesis supports the conclusion that expressive arts does not fit into existing scholarly forms due to its multi-sensorial integration, embodied presence, and immediacy. Such intermodality contrasts with scholarly work that discursively engages discreet sense, such as writing and static images. I establish the context of my investigation by firstly reviewing Levine’s historical concept of poiesis, which encapsulates a tension with science dating back to Plato. I go into further depth on Schiller who offers a necessary exploration into questions surrounding the synthesis of multiple sensory modes of knowing. Second, I intersperse my scholarly history and analysis with personal anecdotes that serve to embody myself as a scholar in this work. This tradition of inserting autobiographical sketches into one’s work sits within expressive arts’ phenomenological approach, which is grounded in subjective, lived experience. I present Leavy’s review of arts-based research to illuminate the potential that such a creative form has in surpassing more rigid forms of inquiry. My biographical narrative of dealing with the death of a friend through the arts and my personal struggle to find a place within academia are meant to convey the power that subjective experience has in establishing a more relatable and accessible intellectual voice. I conclude by presenting three of my expressive arts interventions as demonstrations that expressive arts is a multi-sensorial medium for visceral and rational forms to harmonize and defy the deep-rooted science-art divide.

Table of Contents

p. 1 ............................………………………………………………………………… Introduction

 

p. 3 ……....………………...………………….………..…….....……... Thinking Outside the Box

 

p. 14 ….….………….……….…………….……………….….…. Clinical Confines of Creativity

 

p. 19 ……….………………...………………………...……….… From Plato to Levine’s Poiesis

 

p. 24 ……...……………………………………….…..……….… The Sensory Turn in Academia

 

p. 31 ………...………………………….……………..... Aesthetic Education: Surveying Schiller

 

p. 38 ….………...………………..........……...…. Arts-Based Research: Following Leavy’s Lead

 

p. 50 ……………………………...……..……… Reflections on My Expressive Arts Movements

 

p. 75 ……………..…….…………...… Conclusion: Re-Imagining the Human Race in Academia

 

p. 79 ………………………………………………………………………………… Bibliography

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Anthropology, Cultural Psychology, General Performing Arts
Keyword	Creative Art Therapies Arts-Based Research Interactive PDF Sensory Studies Expressive Arts Therapy Honors Thesis Interdisciplinary Studies
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Wakefield, Peter, Emory University
Committee Members	Vidali, Debra, Emory University Hornbeck, Kenneth, Emory University

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