Alisan Funk

Alisan Funk is Head of Circus Arts at SKH, Head of the Bachelor Programme in Circus and an Assistant Professor of Circus.

Thoughts about Circus

“Circus is cyclically constituted; those driven to engage with the circus often describe a calling more than a vocation (Stroud, 2000), their identity AS circus drives their practice of becoming/embodying circus, they are constituted by and in turn constitute the representation and development of circus itself.”

Funk, A. (2022) Instructions on how to research with circus. In P. Burnard, E. Mackinlay, D. Rousell & T. Dragovich (Eds.) Doing rebellious research in and beyond the academy. Brillsense.

Thoughts about Work

Having passed through the experiences of being a circus student, performer, creator, director, teacher and teacher-educator, I am excited to be working with the circus educators, students, and the broader SKH community to foster the future of circus arts in Sweden and internationally. My role in SKH as an assistant professor of circus maintain my awareness of the student experience through teaching and dialogue. As Head of the Bachelor Programme in Circus, I am provoked to think deeply about how curriculum and content prepare our students for the future. As Head of Circus Arts at SKH, I work with my colleagues and community to shape the connections between our circus programmes, between the circus subject and SKH, and between SKH circus and the international circus community.

Thoughts about Bridging Theory and Practice

As a circus researcher, my recent publications foreground circus education, in SKH and more widely, through the lenses of curriculum, creativity, and gender. Theory is tested against practice – which reciprocally generates better guiding theories -  in my SKH roles, when serving as a board member of the European Federation of Circus Schools (FEDEC), and through the steering committee for FEDEC’s Speak Out project, which is building tools for addressing abuse and discrimination in international circus education contexts.

More information about SPEAK OUT: http://www.fedec.eu/en/5617-speak-out-2023-2024

Some publications

Funk, A. (2022). Instructions on how to research with circus -or- How circus research rebels against circus and research at Stockholm University of the Arts. In P. Burnard (Ed.), Doing rebellious research in and beyond the academy. BrillSense.

Funk, A. (2021). Risky play and the global rise in youth circus. In G. Arrighi & J. Davis (Eds.), The Cambridge companion to the circus, pp. 203-215. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hoak, M., Funk, A., & Berkley, D. (2020). Teaching the Mind-body: Integrating Knowledges through Circus Arts. In Art as an Agent for Social Change (pp. 147-156). Leiden, NL and Boston: Brill Sense.

Bortoleto, M. A. C., Ontañón Barragán, T., Cardani, L. T., Funk, A., Melo, C. C., & Santos Rodrigues, G. (2020, December). Gender Participation and Preference: A Multiple-Case Study on Teaching Circus at PE in Brazilians Schools. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 5, p. 260). Frontiers.

Funk, A. (2019). Le cirque en équilibre: Les écoles supérieures de cirque au Québec. In Arts du cirque et spectacle vivant – Volume 1: Les formations en arts du cirque et en activités physiques artistiques. Reins, France: ÉPURE - Éditions et Presses universitaires de Reims et CNAC - Centre national des arts du cirque. ISBN: 2374960595

Aubertin, P. & Funk, A. (2019). Les arts du cirque dans le contexte de l’enseignement au primaire au Canada ; la genèse d’un projet de recherche et d’innovation sociale. In Arts du cirque et spectacle vivant – Volume 1: Les formations en arts du cirque et en activités physiques artistiques. Reins, France: ÉPURE - Éditions et Presses universitaires de Reims et CNAC - Centre national des arts du cirque. ISBN: 2374960595

Funk, A. (2018). Gender asymmetry and circus education. Ed. K. Fricker and H. Malouin. Circus and its Others [Special issue]. Performance Matters 4(1). Retrieved from: http://performancematters-thejournal.com/index.php/pm/article/view/149