Skip to main content

Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

Menu Search


Trinity College Dublin By using this website you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with the Trinity cookie policy. For more information on cookies see our cookie policy.

      
Profile Photo

Dr. Erika Caterina Piazzoli

Associate Professor (Education)
ARTS BUILDING
      
Profile Photo

Dr. Erika Caterina Piazzoli

Associate Professor (Education)
ARTS BUILDING

 Erika.Piazzoli@tcd.ie

 3531896 1975


Erika is an Associate Professor in Arts Education, School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, and the Director of the Arts in Education Research Centre (AERG). She has practiced dance (Butoh), actor voice training (Linklater) and music (cello) for 15+ years, combining her arts practice with her language teaching experience and academic background in Drama in Education. Erika has practiced as a language teacher (Italian as a Second Language) from 2001 to 2014 in Brisbane, Australia, and from 2015 to date in Dublin, Ireland. She has taught all levels, from beginners to advanced, and all age groups, from toddlers to mature age students, focussing on creative and embodied practices in language education. She was awarded an Honours degree in Applied Theatre and a PhD in Drama in Education, with a thesis on Process Drama for second language learning from Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, where she lectured from 2008 to 2014. She joined TCD in 2015, and currently coordinates the Master in Education (M.Ed.), the largest postgraduate programme in the School of Education. Erika teaches a number of postgraduate modules, including: Drama in Education, Arts Education, Embodying Language, Language & Society (Italian) and supervises several postgraduate students at Master's and PhD levels. Her research interests lie within the areas of arts education, embodiment, aesthetic learning, performative language practice, forced displacement and arts-based research. Erika was 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. She was the recipient of the Trinity Research Excellence (2023) for her work in L2 education through the arts. Erika serves on the editorial board of Scenario: Journal of Performative Language Teaching, Learning and Research, which publishes two issues per year, and hosted the 3rd International Scenario Conference, 'Presence in Performative Language Teaching, Learning and Research' in May 2024. She has written four books, including a monograph (Palgrave, 2018), a co-authored book (Armando, 2023) and two edited books (Palgrave, 2024; Routledge, 2024), as well as 40+ reports, book chapters and research articles.
  Aesthetics   Arts Education   classroom second language learning/acquisition   Drama and theatre in education   Educational Psychology   Neuroscience   Teacher Education
Project Title
 Lacunae: Embodying the Untranslatable
From
08-2021
To
Summary
Lacunae's vision is channelling the disorientation brought about by the pandemic into an aesthetic dimension, through a performative exploration of Untranslatable Words.
Funding Agency
Trinity Long Room Hub
Project Title
 Sorgente: Engaging asylum seekers, refugees and their teachers in performative language pedagogy
From
2019
To
Summary
Sorgente's objective is to collaborate with City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDETB) through two of its services, the Youth and Education Service (YES) for Refugees and Migrants, and the Adult Education Service, to develop a second language learning programme based on Performative Language Pedagogy.
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council
Project Title
 Embodiment in Arts-based Language Learning for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: Integrating Visual arts and Italian
From
January 2017
To
ongoing
Summary
This project focuses on exploring embodied learning working with first-year students enrolled in the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TCPID). We aim to consider the effects that embodiment can have on language learning processes, by specifically combining the syllabi of two modules of the ASIAP program in Term 2, 2018: Exploring Art, taught by John Kubiak, and Italian for Beginners, taught by Erika Piazzoli.
Programme
Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities

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
PhD External Examiner, The University of Sydney 2019; 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 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
  

Page 1 of 5
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'.