2024 in Theatre & Performance Research

Theatre & Performance is a key area for innovative research, knowledge exchange, and public engagement with research, for many researchers from across all of the Humanities disciplines. TORCH has supported work in this area since its inception, and this year recruited a new full-time member of staff to work in this area.

There is a wide range of performance related research and collaboration happening across the Humanities at Oxford. The following is a summary of some of the great things happening over the last year. This year I have supported 70 researchers in the field, and met with over 70 artists and external partners to discuss potential projects. Recent strategic developments to support the research communities at Oxford included launching the Performance Research Hub at TORCH, began our ‘Culture and Creativity’ research collaboration with the University of Uppsala, and welcomed two Interdisciplinary Fellows as part of a major collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company and seven global organisations.

You can find out more about performance research by joining the mailing list (just send an email to performance-research-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk). If you would like to get in touch about a potential research collaboration, email performance@humanities.ox.ac.uk.

Performance Research Hub

January 2024 saw the launch of the Performance Research Hub: a brand new TORCH research hub. Our hubs are points of synergy for cutting-edge, boundary-crossing research on political and cultural questions which are central to the Humanities at Oxford. 

The steering group is led by Professor Gascia Ouzounian (Music) and includes Professor Kirsten Shepherd-Barr (English), Professor Wes Williams (MML), Dr Emanuela Vai (Music), Professor David de Roure (DiSc), Professor Philip Bullock (MML), Professor Oreet Ashery (Ruskin), Professor Francesca Southerden (MML), Dr CW Winter (AMES), Professor Laura Tunbridge (Music) and Professor Samantha Dieckmann (Music).

The Performance Research Hub is for anyone in the University who has interests in performance as a subject or mode of research. It brings together researchers whose work might transcend or reach across a particular faculty or discipline, and it generates new cross-disciplinary projects and initiative in performance. This year we held an open funding call to support five events, organised a hugely popular networking event for researchers and artists, and started exploring the potential of the performance research landscape at Oxford.

RSC Interdisciplinary Fellowships

TORCH has been part of the RSC IF project for some time, and in 2024 we were delighted to welcome our first two fellows as part of the inaugural cohort: Stephen Bailey and Amahra Spence.

RSC IF is part of a wider thought leadership programme hosted by the Royal Shakespeare Company and partner organisations including MIT, Stanford University and Watershed, supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). 

Following their research period, the fellows will come back together in Stratford-upon-Avon in summer 2025 for a Festival of Ideas, supported by a grant from the Rothschild Foundation, where they will share their research findings and potential opportunities for the sector. The fellows are working with Professor Wes Williams (MML) and Professor Christine Gerrard (English) in the first instance, and plan to work with more researchers across the Humanities Division.

You can follow the progress of their research on the Interdisciplinary Fellowship website.

Oxford-Uppsala Culture & Creativity Cluster

As part of the partnership between TORCH and the Centre for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (CIRCUS) at Uppsala University, the Oxford-Uppsala Culture & Creativity Research Cluster is intended to encourage research collaboration and facilitate opportunities for developing strategic multi-disciplinary research projects together. From the Oxford side it involves Professor Katherine Eccles (OII), Dr Robert Laidlow (Music), Professor Wes Williams (MML), Professor Kirsten Shepherd-Barr (English) and Professor Matthew Reynolds (MML).

In November, the Cluster met in person for the first time and began to cohere into a collective with a shared mission and a proposed series of outputs (click here to read the blog). These will in time involve collaborative grant applications and public events, but will begin with the traditional collective vehicle, a series of pamphlets in which researchers create a dialogue and a discussion around shared themes. These pamphlets will be available both in print and digital versions. The first (early 2025) will be Conversations on Creativity vol. 1: Monstrosity.

MOU with UdK

We signed a Memorandum of Understanding with The Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin), to deepen and expand our existing bilateral cooperation. Both organisations are excited to move towards joint research and artistic projects, building on the existing Seed Funding scheme which has supported nearly 20 projects since 2022. The current Seed Funding round is open until 15 March 2025.

BFI collaboration

We continued our collaboration with the British Film Institute, with whom we're working on two projects: The Public's Health led by Professor Erica Charters (History), and After The End led by Professor Patricia Kingori (NDPH). This a strategic partnership that seeks to create and enable opportunities for joint research projects that align with the BFI’s research agenda and Oxford researchers’ work. 

Looking ahead: The Schwarzman Centre

In summer 2025, TORCH will move into the brand new Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, which will be a beacon for the arts and humanities in Oxford and beyond.

What does this mean for theatre & performance? It will bring our Humanities many of our 10 faculties under one roof, and enable all of Humanities faculties to work together in new ways as well as continue and build on the existing research and collaboration. We'll have access to state-of-the-art facilities, and the opportunity to develop new partnerships, and new audiences.

Find out more

Here are just a few of the performance-related projects in the Humanities:

• Burning Down The House - a new play based on the research of Professor Kirsten Shepherd-Barr (English)
• TEXTCOURT - an investigation into Chinese Court Theatre, 1600 - 1800 led by Professor Tian Yuan Tan (AMES)
• SONCITIES - a research project formed at the intersection of sound, urbanism, and critical spatial practices., led by Professor Gascia Ouzounian (Music)
• Fantasy Futures - an extended reality project which concluded in 2024, based on the research of Professor Wes Williams (MML)