Extending feminist pedagogy in conferences: inspiration from Theatre of the Oppressed

This paper employs an autobiographical approach to reflect on some limitations of conventional academic conferences in creating community and supporting deep learning. By and large conventional large conferences tend to be premised on what Brazilian educator Paulo Freire calls the banking model of education and therefore frequently reproduce prevalent academic hierarchies. Examining some feminist ways of conferencing, I argue that while they offer valuable opportunities for dialogue and reflection, they do not radically alter the canonised conferencing model of keynotes, plenaries and parallel presentations. I then reflect on my experience of attending a national conference of Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) practitioners in Bangalore, India, in 2014, framing it through the lens of feminist and critical pedagogy. I conclude that TO with its commitment to equity offers inspiration for re-imagining academic conferences to make them more inclusive of marginalised groups and to support professional and personal growth.