JJ Kapur is a senior at Stanford majoring in Theater and Performance Studies and minoring in Psychology. JJ is a proud Midwesterner. When asked, “Is this heaven?” JJ’s reply is always: “No, this is Iowa.” Kapur grew up in a family of storytellers who instilled in him a love for the stage and performance arts. In college, Kapur has enjoyed exploring the intersection of theater and psychology, especially how the theater can be used as a platform for education and healing. His desire to bridge theater and psychology led him to found “Sikhs in the Spotlight”: a youth-led organization that uses theatrical vignettes to shine the spotlight on issues affecting the mental health of Sikh Americans. When he’s not writing his thesis, you can find him sipping a cup of chai with his friends, chomping on McDonald’s McGriddles, watching pre 2005 Spongebob episodes, or listening to one of the 4 B’s on his record player (The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The BeeGees, and Burt Bacarach).
SHC Project
Project: Modified Digital Forum Theater—A Novel Approach for Improving Communication and Reducing Acculturative Family Distancing in Immigrant Families
Advisors: Michael Rau, Shashank Joshi
What is the focus of your current research?
My honors thesis explores a big question: Can theater change people’s behavior? Underneath this big question is a more specific one: Can theater change the way parents and children communicate? To investigate these questions, I am researching the effectiveness of a theater family workshop at Milpitas High School. I hypothesize that theater can be an intervention to improve communication and reduce cross-cultural conflicts for immigrant parents and teens. I’ll be testing this hypothesis using the framework of Albert Bandura’s “Social Learning Theory” which suggests that social behavior is learned by observing and imitating the behavior of others. In other words, I believe that theater can serve as a useful tool to teach positive and healthy social behaviors to a target audience.
What drew you to this topic?
The idea for my honors thesis comes from lived experience. I am a first-generation Sikh American and, unapologetically, a “Cultural Coconut.”This nickname started as a joke from some of my Indian friends back home in Iowa, referring to my Brown skin on the outside but White identity on the inside. For much of my childhood, I embraced my bicultural identity—my “Coconut-iness” if you will. But as a teenager, I noticed my American and Asian identities come into conflict. Recently, while working on a research project with Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist Dr. Shashank Joshi, I learned a psychological term for the rift I was experiencing: Acculturative Family Distancing (AFD), “the distancing that occurs between immigrant parents and children that is a result of immigration, cultural differences, and differing rates of acculturation” (Hwang, 2006). As the saying goes: “Research is Mesearch.” I chose to pursue an honors thesis with a desire to learn more about the cultural and intergenerational rifts that occur in immigrant families and, most importantly, how to help families like my own deal with them better.
How are you conducting your research?
I am reading lots of theater and psychology literature. In the theater, I am focusing my research on theater directors Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal. Both directors offered a new and radical conception of theater’s function in society which unraveled the enduring traditions of theater as entertainment. Instead, Brecht and Boal saw the theater’s function as an interventional and educational tool where the audience can actively engage in both personal and social struggles.
My honors thesis will also include research in Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, applications of Mimetic Theory to cognitive and behavioral change, and a statistical analysis of survey data (both quantitative and qualitative) administered before, after, and two-months after audience members attend my family theater workshop to determine whether theater can act as an effective intervention in reducing psychological distress in families over time.
What would people be surprised to learn about the topic you are working on?
In a study on Chinese American high school students and their mothers, I was surprised to learn that greater AFD is associated with higher depressive symptoms and a greater risk for clinical depression (Hwang, 2010).This helped me understand the very real effects AFD can have on the mental health of immigrant family members. I was also surprised to find out that, while there is an abundance of articles investigating the causes and effects of AFD in Psychology journals, I do not know of any interventional studies investigating strategies to reduce AFD. And in theater literature, the last time the intersection of psychology and theater was actively and empirically explored was over one hundred years ago when Konstantin Stanislavski created a system of acting based on Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis. These gaps in both theater and psychology literature make me excited to write my thesis!
In your view, why is it valuable to study this topic?
I hope that my honors thesis can pave the way for mental health clinicians to approach cross-cultural treatments through a theater lens and for theater professionals to better understand the psychological impact of their performances on audiences. But the greatest goal I have for my thesis project is to make a tangible difference for the Milpitas community; to create a performance where the audience does not sit silently the entire show, but instead feels alive and awake to the possibility of change. Augusto Boal, founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, puts it best: “The theater itself is not revolutionary: it is a rehearsal for the revolution.” Like Boal, I see the theater’s purpose as a rehearsal for life. If even one parent walks away from my family theater workshop with greater confidence to have healthier conversations with their teens about issues that matter, then I am immensely grateful.
How is your honors thesis impacting you academically and/or personally?
I was quite ambivalent about what I wanted to study when I first came to Stanford, but I continued to try out different classes from different majors until I found intellectual homes in the theater and psychology departments. I think the biggest impact writing my honors thesis has had on me is that it is helping me to connect the dots and to cap off my Stanford experience having delved deep into my intellectual interests!
How do you anticipate the fellowship will be able to support your research?
Having another home on campus! It feels so amazing to walk into the Humanities Center at any time and know that I can make my favorite cup of chai, put on my fuzzy socks, sit at my own desk, and write something I care deeply about. I also am incredibly grateful for the energizing and intellectually stimulating community at the Center. It is such a gift to engage in amazing conversations over lunch with experts in so many different areas.