Empowering whiteness
Subtitle: race and professional identity in community-based theatre work
By: by Jessica Ann Levy.
Published: 2005
Language: eng
Number of pages: 159
Subjects: Theater and society.; Theater -- Political aspects.; Racism and the arts.
Other titles: Race and professional identity in community-based theatre work.
Description: Community-based theatre serves as a focal point in this thesis for posing questions about the intersecting constructions of professional identity, community, and race. Drawing on Foucault's understanding of the productivity of power and of governmentality, I analyze the discourse(s) of six white community-based theatre practitioners. I suggest that the "caring professional"---one who has a role in caring for and/or empowering others---is implicated in the construction of community and derives a meaningful identity from his/her relationship with it. Furthermore, I consider how race is problematized in practitioners' discourses and how these problematizations serve to empower the practitioner as a manager of difference. I contend that, in the attempt to secure professional identity in community settings, whiteness is bolstered as dominant cultural capital. The thesis also suggests some possible implications of the governmental role of whiteness and of professionalism---and the links between them---for community work and social change.
Notes: Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-154)

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