Griffith University

B Arts (Hons), Doctor of Philosophy

Chair, Applied and Social Theatre, School of Education and Professional Studies
Convenor, Bachelor of Arts in Applied Theatre (Hons)

• Contact details for Professor Michael Balfour

Research expertise

Michael’s research expertise is in the social applications of theatre – theatre in communities, social institutions and areas of disadvantage and conflict. He is the recipient of four major Australian Research Council funded projects: Refugee Performance, developing drama-based projects with refugee new arrivals; The Difficult Return, creating new approaches to arts-based work with returning military personnel and their families; Captive Audiences: the impact of performing arts programs in Australian prisons and Playful Engagement and Dementia: understanding the efficacy of applied theatre practices for people with dementia in residential aged care facilities. Previously Michael was a researcher on the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) project In Place of War, and worked extensively in prisons in UK and Europe, developing a range of cultural programs.

In 2011 Michael’s teaching achievements were recognised nationally with an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Award for Teaching Excellence.

Current teaching areas

• Theatre lab
  
• Postgraduate supervision and teaching
  

Publications

Books

• Balfour, M. After the War: The Art of the Return (current project)
• Balfour, M. (Ed.) (2012, in press) Refugee Performance: Practical Encounters, Intellect Press.
• Thompson, J., Hughes, J., & Balfour, M. (2009) (co-authored). Performance: In Place of War. Seagull Press/University of Chicago Press.
• Balfour, M.(co-edited with Somers, J), (2006). Drama as Social Intervention. Captus Press.
• Balfour, M. (2004). Prison Theatre: Theory and Practice. Intellect.
• Balfour, M. (2003). The Use of Drama in the Rehabilitation of Violent Male Offenders. Edwin Mellen Press.
• Balfour, M. (Ed.) (2001) Theatre and War 1933-1945; Performance in extremis.
  

Recent conferences

• Balfour, M. (2009). Invited keynote: Performance in a time of war: cross cultural examples from contemporary sites of conflict, International Conference on Congo, Brisbane Powerhouse, September.
  
• Balfour, M. (2008). ‘Performing refugee identities’, After Effects: Trauma, Memory, Performativity, University of New South Wales, November.
  
• Balfour, M. (2008). Invited key note: ‘No Place Like Home: refugee performance the (re)creating of identity’. Australian Council for Adult Literacy annual conference, Gold Coast, October.
• Balfour, M. (2008).  'Aftermaths: Empowerment, performance and refugee communities', (co-presenter), ArtsHealthConference, Newcastle, September.
  
• Balfour, M. (2007). Invited key note: All this useless beauty, Applied Theatre Symposium, Sydney, October.
  
• Balfour, M. (2007). Performing War, Acts of Resistance, IDEA Congress, Hong Kong, July.
  
• Balfour, M. (2007). Invited key note: The aesthetics of war and resistance, The Turn to Aesthetics, Liverpool Hope University, June.
  

Selected articles and book chapters

• Balfour, M. (2012, in press). ‘The art of return: aesthetic approaches to work with returned military personnel with trauma-related conditions’. In C. Marin and P. Taylor (eds.) Theatre and Social Change, Peter Lang.
• Balfour, M. and Woodrow, N. (2012, in press) ‘On Stitches’, in M. Balfour (ed) Refuge Performance: Practical Encounters, Intellect.
  
• Balfour, M. (2012, in press) ‘Performing the promised land: the festivalising of multi-cultures in the Margate Exodus Project’, in A.Bennett, I. Woodward and J.Taylor (eds.) Festivalisation of Everyday Life: Identity, Culture and Politics, Ashgate Press.
• Balfour, M. (2012). ‘Mapping realities: representing war through affective place making’, New Theatre Quarterly, Vol.xxviii (1).
  
• Balfour, M. (2010). ‘Refugee performance: encounters with alterity’. Journal of Arts & Communities Special Edition Arts & Human Rights in partnership with Amnesty International, vol.2 (3). 
• Balfour, M. (2010). ‘Developing the capacities of applied theatre students to be critically reflective learner-practitioners’, Australasian Drama Studies.
• Balfour, M. (2010). Somewhere to call home: refugee performance and the (re)creating of identity, GIER working paper, Griffith University.
• Balfour, M. (2009). The difficult return: Contexts and developments in drama-based work with returned military personnel, Applied Theatre Researcher.
• Balfour, M. (2009). The politics of intention: looking for a theatre of little changes, Research in Drama Education, 14.3.
• Balfour, M. (2007). Performing war: military theatre and the possibilities of resistance. Performance Paradigm # 3, April.