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Dr. Erika Caterina Piazzoli

Assistant Professor (Education)
ARTS BUILDING


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

Details Date
External Examiner, Programme Level, MA Youth and Community Studies, University of Malta 2024-25
External Examiner, Programme Level, MA English and Drama, MA Drama and Theatre in Education, The University of Warwick 2024-25
Applied Theatre Research (ATR) Advisory Board 2017-24
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/) 20/06/2023
Invited advisor for "Literacy Act: Basic literacy for adult migrants through Community Theatre" Erasmus Programme https://www.literacyact.eu/the-project/ 21/06/2021
PhD External Examiner, The University of Sydney 2019; 2023
PhD External Examiner, The University of Auckland 2021
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
Details Date From Date To
International Drama in Education Research Institute (IDIERI) 2008 2024
International Drama in Education Association (IDEA) 2008 2024
Scenario: Performative Teaching, Learning and Research 2013 2024
Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) 2015 2024
The Arts in Society 2016 2024
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
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], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  URL
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  DOI  URL
Erika Piazzoli, Presence as the Untranslatable, Scenario 3rd International Conference, Performative Language Teaching, Learning and Research, Trinity College Dublin, 9-11 May 2024, 2024, Conference Paper, PRESENTED
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, Invited Talk, PRESENTED
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
  

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Erika Piazzoli, Tania Canas, Youthreach students, 'abSENce-presenCE (SENCE)', Trinity College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, 2024, -, Exhibition, PUBLISHED
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 , Review, 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

  

Award Date
Nominated for Excellence in Research Student Supervision 2023/24
Nominated for Trinity Excellence in Teaching Award 2023/24
Winner: Trinity Research Excellence Awards (Category: Broaden our local and global impact) 2023
Nominated for Excellence in Teaching (Griffith University) 2013
Nominated for Excellence in Teaching (Griffith University) 2013
Nominated for Excellence in Teaching (Griffith University) 2012
Nominated for Excellence in Teaching (Griffith University) 2011
Nominated for Excellence in Teaching (Griffith University) 2010
Griffith University Academic Excellence - Chancellor's Medal Nominee for excellence in Ph.D. Thesis (Awareded with no revisions) 2013
Cassamarca Scholarship Award (Australasian Centre for Italian Studies (ACIS) 2010
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'.