Dr Rita Sebestyén is an artist-researcher and writer developing Embodied Artistic Research (EAR): a praxis that brings people, knowledge and action together for social impact.

Her work creates temporary communities around shared questions, tasks and purposes, using storytelling, embodied practice and collective making to foster collaboration, inclusion, mutual support and new connections. She is particularly interested in the space where research becomes action, and action creates impact. Artistic practice is a channel through which people can think together, make things happen and create change.

She has worked through international projects with teams in Romania, Hungary, Denmark, the UK, Germany, Greece, Italy and Sweden, and her writing has been published in Hungary, Romania, New Zealand, Canada, Poland, Slovakia and the US. She also works as a researcher and evaluator, including as an external expert for European Commission programmes, with experience across cultural, academic, community and public-sector contexts.

This practice has grown from decades in theatre, artistic research and international collaboration. Three milestones have been particularly formative:

• 2012 Játéktér: Co-founded and became editor-in-chief of the intercultural performing arts periodical, connecting theatre practitioners and researchers across Romania and Hungary.
• 2013 Othernessproject: Founded the project, developing multilingual and participatory artistic and research projects across Europe, leading 11 EU projects and collaboratively raising €2 million in five years.
• 2022 Embodied Artistic Research: Began developing EAR, bringing together Sideways Storytelling, Ritualistic Community-Building and Collective Art-Making as a praxis for creating purposeful collaboration, collective knowledge and impact.