Dr. Joe Norris

Professor
Drama in Education
and Applied Theatre

Office: TH 136D
Telephone: 905-688-5550 ext. 3596
email: jnorris

Joe taught English and drama for twelve years before starting his PhD in Educational drama in 1989. Since then he has been a full time instructor at the University of Lethbridge, the University of Alberta, Washington State University Vancouver and St. Francis Xavier University and a part-time instructor for St. Mary’s University, Mount Saint Vincent University and Lesley University before coming to Brock University in 2009. He brought with him Mirror Theatre, a non profit social issues theatre company, that comprises of students, faculty, staff and community members who are interested in devising theatre that examines a variety of social issues. Joe’s recent book, “Playbuilding as Qualitative Research: A Participatory Arts-based Approach”, was awarded the 2011 Outstanding Book Award of the Qualitative Research SIG of the American Educational Research Association and is based upon his work with Mirror Theatre. Click here to read details of their extensive work in Alberta and Ontario as well as Joe's other projects.

Joe’s co-edited book with Laura McCammon and Carole Miller, “Learning to Teach Drama: A Case Narrative Approach” has student written case studies about their drama student teaching experiences. He and Rick Sawyer have created a new research methodology called duoethnography, which explores how attitudes are formed and transformed. The use of a conversational format disrupts the typical metanarrative, making the duoethnographic texts dialogic. Their new book co-edited with Darren Lund, "Duoethnography: Dialogic methods for social, health, and educational research" has just been released. 

Joe focuses his teaching and research at Brock University on the use of Drama-in-Education across disciplines and Applied Theatre in educational and community settings. He invites collaboration and welcomes suggestions from the community for future applied theatre projects.

For further information on Joe, his performative research and Mirror Theatre please go to www.joenorrisplaybuilding.ca.