Professor Persephone Sextou

         My research Foci

My research raises fundamental inter-disciplinary questions relevant to the bedside theatre performance for hospitalised children and young people and their language of pain combined with pedagogical frameworks, digital creativity (VR, film, toy-based animated scenarios, digital drills etc.), applied storytelling, puppetry, hospital tuition, paediatric nursing, and supportive and palliative care for children and young people.

Also, excited by the inter-generational synergies between applied theatre practices in schools, hospitals and care homes towards more humane-centred education, a more sensitive healthcare and better social care services.

I am driven by the AHRC's recognition of applied research methodologies and the interconnected relationship between practice and theory in the arts. I believe that the creative arts significantly contribute to the research culture of academia and develop a growing potential which informs elements of the research outputs, producing new artistic methods and outcomes across disciplines.

Upon the project's needs, I work closely with professionals from the Creative Arts, Digital Arts, Media & Technology, Health, Psychology, Nursing and Social Studies who apply both quantitative and qualitative methods to collect data, people's views, personal opinions and clinical data.

Arts-Based methods: (bedside 1:2:1 theatre performance, puppetry, object theatre with miniatures –playmobil and lego, story-telling, story-making, reflective poetry, drawings, doodling, interactive digital educational apps, online learning resources, animation cartoon films, AR, Avatar, VR, art making).

Qualitative methods (interviews, focus groups, observations, audio ethnography).

Quantitative/clinical data (i.e. cardiac pulse, blood pressure, oxygen levels, temperature etc.) to examine the effectiveness of artistic activities on physical health. 

Co-design PPIE approaches in my projects inform how the co-design of new and innovative systems for creative care in hospitals has evolved through public involvement. This has a significant impact on the ethical and philosophical processes I use in research, impacting the long-term stay of children and young people in hospitals and how aesthetic work leads to strong cultural and social outcomes.