Published Research

Published Research

Our research team consists of qualitative and quantitative faculty and graduate students from Communication Studies (performance studies, intercultural communication, interpersonal communication) and Psychology. We embarked on our research project because we believed that proactive performance was impacting audience members in significant ways. However, beyond case studies and anecdotes, there was little published research on the efficacy of proactive performance prior to our studies.

We have published several quantitative and qualitative studies on the effectiveness of our sexual assault program. Our pilot study in ‘Communication Activism’ was the first quantitative study of proactive performance, and a 2011 study published in ‘Violence against Women’ is the first longitudinal study of this interactive model. In a recent edition of ‘Feminism and Psychology’ several prevention educators discuss the effectiveness of the interACT model.

Our original performance on racism was derived from verbatim student responses and “anonymous confessionals” from CSU Long Beach students. Over the course of seven years we asked students to respond to our performance and lectures on racism. Our research was primarily focused on white resistance strategies to discussing race, as well as pedagogical strategies that can be utilized to facilitate what we call “white identity transformation.” We have also conducted research on the attitudes students have toward accented speech.

“I firmly believe that difficult topics such as sexual assault are often best delivered via creative and engaging teaching methods. The performance demonstrated a remarkable ability to facilitate sensitivity, decision- making and thoughtful dialogue.” – Kristie E. Holt, Professor, Health Education

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