18th March 2016, 1-2pm, 50 George Square Project Room
Dr. Shari Sabeti, Chancellor’s Fellow, Moray House School of Education.
Title: Shakespeare, Adaptation and the ‘Educational’ Comic Book.
Abstract: This presentation describes an empirical study of the ways in which one group of adaptors transformed the plays of William Shakespeare into the medium of the comic book for use in school classrooms. In the tradition of ethnographic research, it privileges the perspectives of the adaptors themselves and explores their choices, dilemmas, processes and perceived responsibilities. I argue that they viewed their adaptations as pedagogic texts and saw the notion of ‘trust’ as central to their work. Using two theories of trust (Hawley 2014; Eco 1994) I go on to explore the complex network of commitments, obligations, and burdens that made up their task as adaptors of Shakespeare’s plays in particular. In the conclusion I highlight the ways in which the concept of trust might illuminate broader educational issues related to knowledge, assessment and learning.
Bio: Shari Sabeti is a Chancellor’s Fellow at Moray House School of Education. Her research background is in English Literature (a PhD on the work of the American poet, Frank O’Hara). She was a secondary teacher of English for eight years before moving to the University of Stirling to work in teacher education. She took up her post at Edinburgh in 2013. Her research explores – in content and methodology - the boundaries between the arts and humanities and educational processes. She is interested in cultures of reading and writing, visual and digital adaptations of literary texts and forms, creativity and museum education.