Abstract:

The transition to higher education is not merely an intellectual adjustment but a profound transformation of how students inhabit academic space, communicate authority, and construct their identities within the university environment. For many first-year students, particularly those from diverse linguistic and socio-cultural backgrounds, the communicative expectations of academia can feel unfamiliar and intimidating. The classroom becomes a stage where students must learn to navigate new forms of visibility, voice, and presence.

This paper explores how the integration of theatrical techniques into a first-year course on public presentations can support students in negotiating this transition. Drawing on perspectives from performativity, embodied learning, and the sociology of education, the study conceptualizes academic communication as a form of performance in which voice, posture, gesture, and emotional regulation play a central role in shaping how students perceive themselves and are perceived by others.

The course design incorporates elements traditionally associated with theatrical practice – including vocal projection, spatial awareness, improvisation, and body language exercises – as pedagogical tools that enable students to experiment with new forms of expression and presence. These practices create a pedagogical space in which students can rehearse confidence, explore alternative ways of inhabiting their bodies in academic contexts, and gradually transform anxiety into a sense of agency.

By examining how theatrical techniques can reshape students’ relationship with public speaking and academic participation, the paper argues that embodied pedagogies offer powerful opportunities for identity construction and affiliation in the early stages of university life. Such approaches highlight the importance of integrating creative and performative practices into higher education in order to support students not only as learners, but as emerging voices capable of participating confidently in the academic and public sphere.

Keywords:

Higher Education, Identity Construction, Performativity, Embodied Learning, Public Speaking, Student Belonging.