34th International Congress on Creative Drama in Education Call for Participants/Papers

Drama in education, or creative drama, is an arts-based educational approach in which various life situations are reflected. In this process, participants experience perceiving, understanding, and sharing images that they themselves create within a fictional world or that are created by other participants. Thus, participants are directly involved in lived experiences within fictional realities that they construct based on their own real-life experiences. This process also gives rise to an aesthetic experience.

Drama in education, or creative drama, is an artistic discipline and an important field and tool of arts education. In such practices, all roles related to life are enacted in a natural way, enabling a deeper understanding of life.

Creative drama cannot be standardized; it is a universal art necessary for every individual. It is like a river, constantly forming dynamic connections; the river connects the starting and ending points of its banks. For this reason, creative drama is essential for everyone. It is created by its participants, is based on improvisation, has no aim of staging, and is process-centered. Participants create through imagination and through reflection on their lived experiences.

Drama in education, or creative drama, is directly related to metaxis, the state of being between real experiences and fictional experiences. Naturally, many games and improvisations are carried out through movement and action. In other words, the enactment in question can also be realized through body language.

The theme of the 34th International Congress on Creative Drama in Education, organized by the Contemporary Drama Association in collaboration with Sakarya University State Conservatory, will also be addressed with a focus on the body and movement under the title “Root, Movement, Trace, and Impact: Cultural Reflections of the Body.”

The congress theme considers the body as a carrier of cultural memory and as a narrative space that produces meaning. Roots, rituals, and traditional movements carry the past into the present through the traces embedded in the body. Movement reconstructs meaning within interdisciplinary interaction and generates transformation. While the traces carried by the body offer a cultural reading through identity, space, and aesthetics, impact makes visible the transformative power of art and education. This theme proposes a body-centered, holistic field of inquiry and experience across dance, movement, creative drama, and performance.

At our congress, we will approach the body not merely as a biological entity, but as a living text that carries cultural, social, and historical layers. Starting from the concept of roots, we will explore the body’s deep connections with belonging, identity, and traditions through the methods, approaches, and techniques of creative drama.

We will question the body’s power of self-expression, its stance of resistance, and the ways it leaves traces within life. Through panels, invited talks, workshops, and papers, we will seek to reveal how creative drama education deepens and transforms these four fundamental concepts.

We invite you to an experience-oriented and multidimensional platform for discussion that explores the cultural reflections of the body.

We look forward to welcoming you to the 34th International Congress on Creative Drama in Education, to be held between 14–17 May 2026 at Sakarya University State Conservatory, to think together, discuss, experience, and redefine these fundamental issues. The congress addresses faculty members and researchers working in faculties of education, fine arts, psychology, sociology, and communication; those conducting research in creative drama, theatre pedagogy, drama education, and arts education; master’s and doctoral students; early-career researchers wishing to present their theses; teachers and educators; teachers who integrate or wish to integrate creative drama methods into their courses; instructors working in public education centers, private courses, or cultural and arts institutions; drama instructors and practitioners; independent artists and educators leading drama workshops; practitioners using drama methods in in-service training (schools, companies, NGOs); artists from all fields; representatives of civil society and the public sector; municipalities and cultural directorates; public institution employees interested in education and cultural policies; as well as students and volunteers.

Prof. Dr. Ömer ADIGÜZEL

Chair of the Executive Committee