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Dr. Erika Caterina Piazzoli

Assistant Professor (Education)
ARTS BUILDING

 Erika.Piazzoli@tcd.ie

 3531896 1975


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.

Research Tags

  Aesthetics   Arts Education   classroom second language learning/acquisition   Drama and theatre in education   Educational Psychology   Neuroscience   Teacher Education

Research Projects

 Lacunae: Embodying the Untranslatable
 Sorgente: Engaging asylum seekers, refugees and their teachers in performative language pedagogy
 Embodiment in Arts-based Language Learning for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: Integrating Visual arts and Italian

Languages

Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
French Fluent Fluent Fluent
Italian Fluent Fluent Fluent
Polish Basic Basic Basic
Spanish Fluent Fluent Fluent
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, Book, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
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], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
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], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Erika Piazzoli, Modesto Corderi Novoa, Zoe Hogan, Performing Yuánfèn: An Exploration of Untranslatable Words in the Lacunae Project, Arts, 13, (1), 2024, p1 - 19, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI  URL
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, Book, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
Erika Piazzoli, Giulia Tiozzo, Il teatro nella glottodidattica: Il process drama dalla teoria alla pratica, Rome, Armando Editore, 2023, 1 - 420pp, Book, PUBLISHED  URL
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], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
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], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  DOI  URL
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, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI  URL
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, Notes: [A literature review commissioned by the NCCA to support curriculum specification development for the area of Arts Education in the new primary school curriculum to be published in 2025.], Report, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  URL
  

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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], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
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, Report, PUBLISHED
Erika Piazzoli, Process Drama: Aneddoto Contro la Sonnolenza, Officina: La rivista per insegnanti di ALMA Edizioni, Aprile, 2012, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Erika Piazzoli, The Power of 'Teacher in Role', Journal of Modern Language Teachers' Association of Queensland, 49, 2010, Journal Article, PUBLISHED

  

Research Interests

Description Of Research Interests

Language as performance. Social behaviour as performance. Dramatic form as performance. As an inter-disciplinary genre, 'performative language pedagogy' embraces the concepts of performance in linguistics, performance studies and aesthetic theory. Within performative language teaching, process drama differs from scripted theatre as it has no external audience and does not build towards a final show. Rather, it aims to engage the participants (language learners) in an aesthetic and intercultural experience that follows a cycle of experience, action and reflection. It is based on the premise that all teaching can be seen as an art form and that, conversely, performative teaching implies artistry. If so, what does this artistry involve when teaching a foreign language? I'm interested in performative language pedagogy, teacher education and particularly how we learn through embodiment. Within this area, my research has focused on the language learning experiences of refugees and migrants and their teachers.