Credible Witnesses: Young People, Life Performance and Testimonial Injustice

Credible Witnesses develops an interdisciplinary inquiry that examines how performance can be used to better understand and expose young people's experiences of testimonial injustice and improve the support they receive by enhancing the listening skills of the professionals who work with them.

Testimonial injustice occurs when a hearer's prejudice causes a lack of credibility to be assigned to a speaker's testimony. Initially conceptualised in philosophy and much debated in criminology, social work, education, and other disciplines, testimonial injustice has yet to receive sustained attention from theatre and performance scholars. Credible Witnesses attends to this gap and, through an examination of forms of 'life performance' such as verbatim and testimonial theatre, and autobiographical and solo performance, develops new ways of empowering young people to speak out about the testimonial injustice they have endured and improving the support they are offered.

The project will be delivered with two Project Partners; Little Fish Theatre, based in South East London, and Oldham Theatre Workshop, based in Oldham, both of which have expertise in making theatre with and for young people from underserved communities.

This is a timely moment to examine these issues. Black Lives Matter and #Me Too have revealed how gender and race determine which witnesses are believed and who is deemed credible within justice processes. Since the pandemic, hate crimes have increased, yet young people often find that forms of prejudice endemic within young people's services make it difficult for them to speak out about their experiences and access the support they need.

Steered by an international Advisory Group of world-leading researchers in philosophy, criminology, and social work, and a Youth Group, Credible Witnesses crosses disciplinary boundaries and places young people at its centre. Through its interdisciplinary approach, the project develops research that has the potential to transform theatre and performance scholarship as well as other disciplines such as social work, criminology, and law, producing a number of significant research outputs that will be accessible to a range of different stakeholders.

In collaboration with the Project Partners, 12 drama-based testimonial injustice workshops will be delivered with schools and youth offending teams (YOTs) in London and Oldham, examining young people's encounters with testimonial justice. Material from these workshops will be developed into a touring performance to which young people, policy-makers, and professionals working within young people's services will be invited.

The young people's experiences will also inform a series of short-form films that will be disseminated via the Project Partner's networks and the project website. Working in collaboration with social work tutors at Royal Holloway, University London, a testimonial justice tool kit and a testimonial justice critical listening workshop, aimed at trainee social workers, will also be developed.

The outputs of the project will include a monograph (written by the Fellow) and an article co-authored by the Fellow and Postdoctoral Research Assistant, who will support the research. Using performance to establish a dialogue with young people who have experienced testimonial injustice and the professionals who support them, Credible Witnesses will produce accessible outcomes with the potential to transform professional practice in schools, social work, and criminal justice settings, empowering young people to speak about their experiences and ultimately laying the ground for forms of testimonial justice.