Katja FRIMBERGER

I am Lecturer in Education at the University of Strathclyde, where I teach across a range of modules on the BA (Joint Honours) Education Studies & the BA Primary Education and participate in the Education, Philosophy & Culture research group.

In my research, I am interested in:

• The formative processes in informal arts education/art-making contexts (esp. film/theatre).
  
• Phenomenological research into practice - with the aim to understand the lived experience of education (as embodied, relational, spatial practice).
  
• Philosophical/methodological questions around arts-based education research.

As a result of my research interests, I often map the pedagogical, social & material interactions in production- aesthetic projects. I am most curious about informal education encounters that happen outside (or at the margins of) mainstream education. I have collaborated with filmmaker/animator Simon Bishopp in filmmaking, documentary and animation projects with children, young people  and adults; and have facilitated theatre-based research - based on a Brechtian pedagogy of 'estrangement' - to explore the lived experience of 'interculturality' with international students in higher education.

I have published on:

• Bertolt Brecht's theatre of estrangement as a form of intercultural pedagogy & philosophical ethnography.
• Film/Theatre based research as a migratory research aesthetics.
• Arts-based research & the new materialism.
  
• Hope & utopian desire in participatory filmmaking.
• The ethics of performative approaches in intercultural (language) education.

I welcome research students interested in phenomenological research into practice; or who would like to explore educational/philosophical questions in relation to the arts, education and research. Please contact me if you would like to discuss a research project.

I was previously Lecturer in Theatre at Brunel University London, where I taught Applied Theatre, Performance Theory & Directing for the BA Theatre.

In my role as Research Associate at the University of Glasgow for the 3-year, Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded, £2 mill. large grant project 'Researching Multilingually at the Borders of the Body, Language, Law & the State', I theorised the role of arts-based research methods in multilingual settings.

When working as an independent researcher, I co-lead on a range of filmmaking/digital animation projects with filmmaker Simon Bishopp, funded through Creative Scotland, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the School for Social Entrepreneurs.

My research interests include:

• Theatre & Education (philosophy/theory-practice)
  
• Film & Education (philosophy/theory-practice)
  
• Arts-based research (philosophy/theory-practice)
  
• Phenomenological research into practice

I am a member of:

• the Scottish Educational Research Asscociation (SERA)
• the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB)

Research/ Projects:

I am part of the international 'Performative Arts & Pedagogy Project', comprised of a team of creative arts practitioners, language teachers and academics from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland and the UK. We are aiming at an increased awareness of (culture-) specific concepts and associated terminologies that are applied in Performative Arts & Pedagogy contexts. You can access our latest publication (open-access) here.

I am on the project team of the 'Creative Multilingualism: from Practice to Research to Education' research project (Feb 2020 - Dec 2022) at the University of Thessaly in Greece, led by Prof. George Androulakis and funded through the Greek Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI - ELIDEK).

The animation education project 'Little Animation Studio' (LAS) was a collaboration with filmmaker Simon Bishopp and was funded through Creative Scotland. We partnered with care & education provider Harmeny Education Trust and the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA, Glasgow Life) - to support children with differing needs to create their own first, fully animated short film (all during lockdown!). Their film 'The Mice & The Bakers' is currently exhibited at the GOMA as their community arts exhibition from 5th October 2020-10th January 2021.

• Research: arts-based/phenomenological research into education as lived experience. 
  

• Participatory Community Filmmaking: I have collaborated on a range of particpatory filmmaking projects with filmmaker Simon Bishopp:

• Our documentary 'Speaking your language', made for the £2mill-AHRC large grant project 'Researching Multilingually at Borders', explored the multi-sensory relationships people have to their spoken languages. It won the Refugee Festival Video Competition, was shown to the head of the UN Refugee Agency at the Scottish Parliament during Refugee Festival & featured in the AHRC's research impact report. You can read about my research into the making of our film here.

• The documentary 'Scotland Our New Home' was the result of a Creative Scotland-funded participatory filmmaking project with young refugees from the New Young Peers Scotland group (hosted by YPeople Charity) who wanted to make a film to support other new young arrivals in the process of making home in Scotland. You can read more about the filmmaking in our article or this blog post.

• Commissioned by the AHRC-funded research project 'Ethical interpreting in healthcare settings', filmmaker Simon and I created a series of five narrative training films, based on the project researchers' qualitative research interviews. The films were made with the participation of community volunteers. They are freely available on youtube and used by a variety of organisations as a reflexive practice tool for interpreters and health/social care practitioners working in multilingual/intercultural settings. You can read about our journey of creating the five films here.

• Language Teaching: I am an experienced language/drama teacher and have taught German, English and Drama in secondary, tertiary and adult education in Scotland, Venezuela and Germany.

• CPD Training: I have designed & delivered CPD sessions on arts-based language teaching for primary/secondary school teachers; on arts-based research for early career researchers; on participatory filmmaking for social workers/ teachers/community educators (with Simon Bishopp).

I like to teach and research on educational questions at the overlap of the arts, humanities & social sciences.

I received a full PhD scholarship from the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, which resulted in a PhD project that explored international students' lived experiences of 'interculturality' through an arts-based research pedagogy based on a Brechtian notion of Verfremdung (estrangement).

I hold an M.A. in Drama & Theatre Studies from University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland.

My M.Ed. (Education, with English & German) comes from Universität Hildesheim in Germany, where I also qualified as a secondary school teacher for German & English in the federal state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen).