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Researcher

Dr Persephone Sextou

My Expertise

Prof Persephone Sextou is a leading expert in interdisciplinary applied theatre for health and wellbeing. Her co-design and co-production research model is informed by consultation with children in schools and hospitals and their families, nurses, teachers, mental health services and young people's advisory groups. She is widely published on applied theatre in paediatrics using bespoke acting, puppetry, object theatre, 3D installations, and digital arts (storytelling and film, VR) on the hospital wards and school classrooms. She uses mixed methodologies and tools to investigate the impact of arts-based research on the mental and social health and well-being of children and young people in education, health and palliative care. View Prof Sextou's website here: https://www.persephonesextou.co.uk

Keywords

Fields of Research (FoR)

Applied theatre, Digital and electronic media art, Paediatrics, Community child health, Palliative care

Biography

Persephone (Persefoni) Sextou is a Visiting Professorial Fellow at UNSW Sydney and a Professor in Applied Theatre for Health and Well-being at the Leeds Beckett University, Leeds School of Arts, in England. As a leading expert in Applied Theatre Performance in Paediatrics, her research focuses on the improvement of children's lives during hospitalisation. Her interdisciplinary applied research and curricula engagement with the community...view more

Persephone (Persefoni) Sextou is a Visiting Professorial Fellow at UNSW Sydney and a Professor in Applied Theatre for Health and Well-being at the Leeds Beckett University, Leeds School of Arts, in England. As a leading expert in Applied Theatre Performance in Paediatrics, her research focuses on the improvement of children's lives during hospitalisation. Her interdisciplinary applied research and curricula engagement with the community influences arts & health policy and practice, and offers consultancy on arts frameworks in healthcare and educational organisations. Persephone is the author of five monographs and 40+ articles in peer-reviewed journals. Her  book 'Theatre for Children in Hospital. The Gift of Compassion' was published by Intellect (UK) in 2016 and is listed in recommended bibliographies of academic programmes around the world. Her new book 'Applied Theatre in Paediatrics. Children, Stories and Synergies of Emotions' is published with Routledge Australia in the Learning through Theatre series (January 2023). For more details about her academic journey, teaching and research philosophy, and projects you may visit: https://www.persephonesextou.co.uk


My Grants

The Lottery Community Scheme, BBC Children in Need, National Healthcare System (NHS) Trusts, Philanthropy Organisations in the UK and Europe, and Co-I in an ARC grant led by Professor Michael Balfour UNSW Sydney.


My Qualifications

Goldsmiths College University of London (UK) - Doctorate (PhD) 2004

Lancaster University (UK) - Master of Arts 1992

University of Ioannina (GR) - Bachelor of Arts (Honours) 1991, PGCE Early Years incl.


My Research Activities

Persephone's research focuses on interdisciplinary, co-design and co-production applied theatre practice in healthcare and educational contexts and settings. Her model of bedside intimate theatre in paediatrics is internationally acclaimed for its mixed-methodologies, social and cultural benefits. She employs bespoke audience participation, storytelling, puppetry, animation films and literacy activities for children in hospital to improve the experience of illness and treatment of vulnerable children. Persephone also partners with the tech industry in developing simulation engineering (VR, AR) technology in arts-based research for hospitalised populations. Her research participates in parliamentary debates about the role of the arts in health & wellbeing and is widely discussed in reports in the UK and Australia. She is currently a Co-investigator of the Future Stories research team led by Professor Michael Balfour at UNSW Sydney. For more details about her research, visuals, videos and keynote speeches/webinars etc, https://www.persephonesextou.co.uk/ 


My Research Supervision


Supervision keywords


Areas of supervision

Professor Sextou is available to supervise HRD Candidates in the balanced interconnectedness between 4 areas: 

(1) innovative Applied Theatre practice and research, 

(2) inter-disciplinarity and intersections in research-led practice between Theatre, Health & Wellbeing, Education and Digital Technology

(3) transgenerational research between childhood and aging populations connected through the community arts, and

(4) community impact, pedagogical, societal/public and cultural benefits. 

Sextou's PhD completions cover the areas of applied theatre, disability, and social wellbeing.


My Engagement

Prof Sextou's research engages deeply and meaningfully with the community through participatory arts for vulnerable children and young people in hospitals and hospices. to my research hospitalised children are treated as creative participants rather than patients. I use imaginative and innovative media to shift the identity of the ill person to an 'I can do' identity in illness. There is no one culture here, no single idea, no expectation of what the children should do when they are unwell; so if the actors tell children in hospital that a story is a heaven of opportunity, kindness, possibility, and escape to imagined worlds through embodied and mediated stories, a place where everyone is invited to be who they wish to be and say what they feel is the right thing to say-or remain silent, then, actually, children believe them. In my research projects in paediatrics and hospices, actors and storytellers have conspired to tell children that magical boots can fly to the moon, dragons can have ears made of eggplants, and a glittering star can be touched. It is the child's right to own their illness and the potential of their stories; how to create them, live them, change them, remake them, neglect them, revive them, and perform them with assistance, when needed, from actors. I expect and believe that children can be playful and creative in illness, and as a researcher, I support this creation. What a wonderful outcome of empowerment that is!


My Teaching

For Professor Sextou's teaching philosophy, you may visit her website: https://www.persephonesextou.co.uk/Teaching.php

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Publications

by Dr Persephone Sextou

ORCID as entered in ROS