
Visiting Scholar
Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology
The School of the Arts, Media, Performance, and Design
York University
juliagray@possiblearts.ca
B iosketch
Julia Gray is an interdisciplinary cultural and performance studies scholar, critical social science researcher and artist-practitioner (playwright/theatre director), and currently
Julia was originally trained as a playwright and theatre director, with a background in dance, and she is the playwright/director of several research-informed theatre projects including After the Crash: a play about brain injury, Seeing the Forest (co-written with Dr. Gail Mitchell about patient safety culture in hospitals) and most recently Cracked: new light on dementia. She obtained her
Research Interests
- Arts-based, critical qualitative and post-qualitative research approaches
- Performance, cultural and social theories
- Embodied difference: disability and aging
- Health humanities
- Activism/social justice
Website
Sample Publications
Books
Gray, J. (Ed.) (2017) ReView: an anthology of plays committed to social justice. Rotterdam: Brill-Sense Publishers.
Journal Articles
Gray, J. Dupuis, S.L., Kontos, P., Jonas-Simpson, C., Mitchell, G. (In Press) Knowledge as Embodied, Imaginative, Foolish Enactment: Exploring Dementia Experiences through Theatre. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research.
Gray, J. Donnelly, H., Gibson, B.E. (2019) Seriously foolish and foolishly serious: The art and practice of clowning in children’s rehabilitation. Journal of Medical Humanities. First published on-line July 23, 2019. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10912-019-09570-0
Gray, J., Kontos, P. (2019) Working at the margins: Theatre, social science and radical political engagement. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. Special Issue on Theatre and Performance vs the “Crisis in the Humanities”: Creative Pedagogies, Neoliberal Realities. 24(3), 204-207. doi: 10.1080/13569783.2019.1604125
Gray, J. (2019) Working within an aesthetic of relationality: Theoretical considerations of embodiment, imagination and foolishness as part of theatre making about dementia. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. Special Issue on Theatre, Dementia and Relationality, 24(1), 6-22. doi: 10.1080/13569783.2018.1535270
Gray, J. & Kontos, P. (2018) An aesthetic of relationality: embodiment, imagination and playing The Fool in research-informed theatre. Qualitative Inquiry. 24(7), 440-452. doi: 10.1177/1077800417736331
Parsons, J. A., Gladstone, B. M., Gray, J. and Kontos, P. (2017) ‘Re-conceptualizing “impact” in art-based health research’, Journal of Applied Arts & Health, 8(2), 155–73, doi: 10.1386/jaah.8.2.155_1
Dupuis, S.L., Kontos, P., Mitchell, G., Jonas-Simpson, C., & Gray, J. (2016). Re-claiming citizenship through the arts. Special Issue on Citizenship, Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 15(3), 358-380.
Gray, J., Kontos, P. (2015) Immersion, imagination and embodiment: moving beyond an aesthetic of objectivity in research-informed performance in health [31 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 16(2), Art. 29. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1502290.
Book Chapters
Gray, J., Setchell, J. with Donnelly, H. (In press) Applied performance practices of therapeutic clowns: A curated conversation with Helen Donnelly. A. Breed & T. Prentki (Eds) The Routledge Companion to Applied Performance. London, UK: Routledge.
Gray, J., Kontos, P., Dupuis, S., Mitchell, G., Jonas-Simpson, C. (2017) Dementia (re)performed: Interrogating tensions between relational engagement and regulatory policies in care homes through theatre. S. Chivers and U. Kreibernegg (Eds) Care Home Stories: Aging, Disability, and Long-term Residential Care, (pp. 105-120). Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript-Verlag.
Gray, J. & Mitchell, G. (2016) Considering Aesthetics: bringing new awareness to patient safety culture in hospitals. G. Belliveau and G. Lea (Eds) Research-based theatre: An Artistic Methodology, (pp. 77-88). Bristol, UK: Intellect.
CQ teaching
Winter 2019: Julia co-taught ‘Theory and Method for Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction (JRP1000)” with Dr. Janet Parsons