Maja Milatovic-Ovadia
About
The objective of my PhD research is to develop my own practical methodology in making applied theatre and examine new points of departure in using comedy in applied theatre practice in the sites that suffer crises and conflict.
Research interests
"The affective potential of the dramatic genre of comedy in applied theatre practice to support the process reconciliation in a post-war society."
I want to focus on the social use of performance as a possible tool in the process of reconciliation and to explore if using comedy could be beneficial, especially in the society where there is a strong disagreement over the conflict's narrative. By combining insight from social science and theatre studies, this research will address the issues of memory and cultural taboos, within the context of global theatrical discourse and with a focus on the contemporary post-war Balkan situation. Discourse on humour (Critchly), applied theatre (Kuftinec, Thompson) and reconciliation (Bar-Tar & Bennink) as well as the concept of the affect (Thompson) will form a theoretical framework for my exploration.