Multimodal/Creative

How can we invite dance into the research process?

What can we communicate through movement? How can dance and community creation help us to teach and learn about different subjects? OreOluwa Badaki conducted a three-year critical ethnography on the literacy practices of youth of color working in urban agriculture in Philadelphia focusing on food and environmental literacy. Her study highlighted the importance of critical thinking in understanding food and environmental issues, emphasizing the need for questioning traditional methods.

Groovin' Griot | Podcast on Spotify

Groovin’ Griot is a podcast about how we use dance to tell stories, co-hosted and produced by OreOluwa Badaki and Azsaneé Truss. The term “griot” comes from the West African tradition of oral and embodied storytelling. Griots are traveling poets, musicians, genealogists, and historians who preserve and tell stories via a variety of modalities.

On Groovin’ Griot, we center the African Diaspora and honor the legacies of the griot by talking to the storytellers in our communities who help unpack the role of dance in remembering and reimagining the lessons of the past. We’ll talk roots, rhythm, rituals, recommendations, and much more. Come groove with us! Listen and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever podcasts are found. Email us at groovingriot@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram @groovingriot!


In the Media

  • Climate storytelling: Creativity and imagination in the face of bleak realities

    An op-ed by Dr. O about the role of creative and collaborative storytelling in environmental justice education

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  • Youth activism alone cannot save us: A case for intergenerational environmental coalitions

    An op-ed by Dr. O about the importance of supporting community-driven, intergenerational environmental justice

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  • Q&A: Climate Hub Grantee on Lessons Learned

    An interview with Dr. O about her early experiences in Brazil and conceptualizing the “Storied Seeds” project 

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Peer Reviewed

  • Badaki, O. (2020). Embodied Learning and Community Resilience. Penn GSE Perspectives on Urban Education, 18(1), n1.

  • Badaki, O. (2023). Seeds of the Diaspora. Food Justice Activism and Pedagogies: Literacies and Rhetorics for Transforming Food Systems in Local and Transnational Contexts, 85.

  • Campano, G., Ghiso, M. P., Badaki, O., & Kannan, C. (2020). Agency as collectivity: Community-based research for educational equity. Theory into practice, 59(2), 223-233.

  • Dress-Shaikha, M., Badaki, O., Blanks Jones, J. (2024) Imaging and Imagining Activism Exploring Embodied and Digital Learning Through Filmmaking With African Immigrant Girls During the Pandemic. Educating African Immigrant Youth: Schooling and Civic Engagement in K-12 Schools. Teachers College Press.

  • Knight-Manuel, M.G., Robert, N., Akin-Sabuncu, S. (2024). Social cohesion, belonging, and anti-blackness: African immigrant youth’s civic exploration in a culturally relevant-sustaining, after-school club. Educating African Immigrant Youth: Schooling and Civic Engagement in K–12 Schools. Teachers College Press.