RESEARCH & ACTIVISM
Lauren's commitment to responsive listening and embodied participatory action research began through engaging in the 2016-2017 Albert Schwietzer Fellowship and continued through her master's thesis research, "Engaging Collective Embodied Resilience, Enacting Ritual Movement Practice in a Social Change Process"
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Lauren's interest in the co-creation of community intersected with their lived experience of chronic illness when they learned about Disability Justice. In 2020, they co-founded the Disability Access Affinity Group within the Mulitcultural and Diversity Committee of the American Dance Therapy Association.
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Lauren also now sits on the Standards and Ethics Committee of the ADTA advocating for the practice of restorative and transformative justice approaches to the ethical complaint process. They present with the committee on interpersonal harm reduction.
PROJECTS
Here are a few examples of their research and activism:
CIRCLE OF APPRECIATION
Building from a collaborative and artistic investigation of collective embodied resilience as experienced during participation in collective action, four co-researchers set out to share what they found. Forming a Circle of Appreciation outside of the Trump tower in Chicago was their hopeful response to a contemporary feeling of disconnection.
DANCE DEMONSTRATION
A site-specific demonstration through dance/movement that offers a pro-peace, pro-cultural equity, pro-justice, and pro-Article 1 freedoms artistic response to the 2016 Presidential Inauguration. Organized by Shawn Lent.
DAAG SENSORY ROOM
Disability Access Affinity Group offers a space during the ADTA Annual Conference for attendees to rest, recharge, and integrate as guests within the MDC Shared Space. As a collective of dance/movement therapists with multiple and varied lived experiences of disability, neurodivergence, and chronic illness, we know that attending the conference can be an overstimulating experience. Join us in a curated exploration of quiet stillness, engaging the senses, creative processing, and nervous system capacity-building. We welcome your whole, authentic, curious self and any access needs you may have to our Sensory Room space.