Changes in European schools

3:30 – 5:30 PM

Broderick Chow (Director of Learning, Teaching and Inclusion) and Kim Myers (EDI Manager) of the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama will discuss transformations in the British conservatoire landscape as drama and theatre education responds to current social movements. They will discuss key challenges facing minoritized students and staff in such institutions and how institutions can work towards cultural change. 

Dr Broderick D.V. Chow is Reader in Theatre, Performance and Sport at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. At Central he is Director of Learning, Teaching and Inclusion within the college’s senior leadership team. He is co-editor of Performance and Professional Wrestling (Routledge, 2016) and Sports Plays (August 2021). His forthcoming book Dynamic Tensions explores the origins of men’s fitness practices in UK/US popular theatre. He also has research interests in Philippine commercial theatre and popular music, economies of theatre, and anti-racist and anti-colonial pedagogies. He is a member of ‘Revolution or Nothing’, a network for Black and Global Majority scholars in UK dance, theatre and performance studies, and an advocate for coalitional approaches towards anti-oppression in the academy. 

Kim Myers joined Central as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Manager in August 2021 and is currently responsible for enabling the development and advancement of Central’s equity, diversity and inclusive practices. Kim brings her EDI expertise to policy, people, data and systems in order to embed a renewed culture.

Prior to joining Central, Kim worked within the charity sector as EDI Lead where she was responsible for establishing EDI initiatives across all areas of inclusion combined with her role as HR Business Partner. Kim has previously held HR positions across not for profit and local authority positions for over ten years. Both areas of expertise are combined within her EDI role at Central. 

Petr Polák was elected Ombudsman of DAMU in April 2022. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno. He is close to theatre art and its teaching thanks to his studies in the theory and history of theatre. His legal education is applied in the Office of the Ombudsman in Brno, where he has worked in various positions since 2007; for eight years he even headed the Equal Treatment Department. He is also an external lecturer at the Academy of European Law (ERA), was a member of the Board of Directors of the European Network of Equality Bodies Equinet until 2019 and has also lectured law at his alma mater in the past. He is a national tutor for the HELP programme of the Council of Europe and a lay judge of the Regional Court in Ostrava in criminal cases. He has authored or co-authored several publications, proceedings and articles on protection against discrimination. He speaks English and Spanish. He is learning Czech sign language.  

Olivia Grecea is an independent theatre director, lecturer at the Faculty of Theatre and Film (Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca) and author of the volume Teatrul devised. Utopie, instrument și teatru politic (Devised Theatre. Utopia, Tool and Political Theatre, 2017). Her education includes Theatre Studies and Theatre Directing in programmes of Babeș-Bolyai University and Université Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle. 

Current interests are collaborative practice methodologies, performativity and writing. Her credits as theatre director include text-based productions and devised productions. She is a collaborator of Reactor de Creație și Experiment (Cluj-Napoca), one of the leading independent companies in Romania.