Elvira Crois is Assistant Professor and postdoctoral researcher in arts education at Brussels research centre for Innovation in Learning and Diversity [BILD] at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Their research focuses on worldmaking within and via participatory arts and playful education for social change. In 2023, Elvira started a research project on participatory arts for climate education. They follow an interdisciplinary arts approach to feed educational practices on ecology.

To this end, they are currently conducting a systematic literature review, working on a data set of 40 artist interviews, and coordinating the collaborative Erasmus+ (KA2) project 'Codename Seedling: A Climate Justice and Arts Educational Approach to Youth Work' with Bath Spa University and creative partners in Belgium, Denmark, UK, Portugal, and France. The project explores how young people can better engage with the climate crisis through arts activities, working through (i) youth-led projects that combine activism and arts, (ii) developing arts-based advocacy toolkits for youth practitioners, and (iii) an impact study through an embedded reflective strategy that demonstrates the efficacy of the creative projects and toolkit.

In 2022, Elvira completed a joint PhD in Theatre and Intermedia (University of Antwerp) and Adult Educational Sciences (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) with the doctoral thesis ‘Holding [ a Conversation with ] the Situation. The Performer’s Tactical Ability and the Aesthetic Affect of Audience Participation’. The research examined performer training in participatory performing arts to better understand how the abilities of the performer affect the aesthetics of audience participation. Through an accompanying approach (i.e. a participatory research method) and the theoretical framework of theatre genetics (i.e. the study of the creative process-) the project investigated participatory performing arts, including the work of Katrien Oosterlinck (BE) (www.spatie.info), Seppe Baeyens (BE) (leon.dance) and Sarah John (AU/DK) (art-of-listening.org).

In 2022-2023, Elvira coordinated together with Marieke Breyne the community of practice 'Worldmaking: Crafting Cultures With and For Young People', funded by Erasmus+ Youth in Action (JINT vzw). This interdisciplinary project gathers practitioners from participatory arts, arts educators, and social justice to explore the interplay between rules and values in the process of worldmaking. Project partners: Destelheide (BE), De Veerman (BE), spatie/Katrien Oosterlinck (BE), Coney/The Young Coneys (UK), Art of Listening (DK), Keur Eskemm (FR).

From 2015-2017 they worked as a socio-cultural worker at Gemeenschapscentrum De Kriekelaar in Schaarbeek, Brussels. Since 2017 Elvira has taken up the role as assessor of Erasmus+ youth projects for the national agency JINT. Elvira is part of Apaya Network, a European network of young researchers who explore the poetics of sensorial theatre. Furthermore they are an organising member of the interuniversity doctoral course “What does it mean to be a researcher in 21st century Academia?” and from 2018-2020 co-president of the informal body of doctoral students of the department of literature.