PhD

Since October 2021, I have been a part-time PhD student at Leeds University undertaking practice-based research at the School of Performance and Cultural Industries.

Click HERE to get to my University profile.

RESEARCH SUMMARY

My doctoral research combines my performance and translation skills, and it is practice-based. This means I conduct research through devising and performing bilingual theatre pieces in collaboration with professional theatre artists in Britain and Germany. I aim to find out whether the process of taking theatre across national borders can teach us something about the identity of performers who, like myself, live and work in more than one country. I’m particularly interested in the effects that transnational theatre-making might have on the performance and on the way migrant performers make sense of themselves as artists.

My first research project involved the making of the autobiographical performance piece As the Crow Flies which I co-developed and performed in 2022 in Germany. I subsequently translated the piece into English for performances in Manchester and Leeds, U.K. As the Crow Flies still tours between Germany and Britain (upcoming UK performances scheduled for September 2024)

I’m now at the start of devising my second research project, which, in contrast to the first project, will be a theatre piece developed in English and performed in Britain before I translate it into German for performances in Berlin. More details to be announced soon.

AWARDS

2024 Nomination for Partnership Award at the University of Leeds for “Postgraduate Researcher of the Year“

2024 Nomination for Partnership Award at the University of Leeds for “Innovation Award”

RESEARCH PROJECTS

2025 “Emotions in Protest and Resistance”, funded by Research Innovation, School of LCS, University of Leeds, ROLE: Creative Workshop Facilitator

2024-25 “SPEAK UP!”, a National Theatre research programme, ROLE: Research Assistant

2023-24 “Ways of Knowing”, funded by Research England’s Enhancing Research Culture (ERC), ROLE: Researcher and Creative Workshop Facilitator

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

2023 – Performance Studies International, Johannesburg, South Africa, Presentation title: “As The Crow Flies – Exploring Identity through Making and Migrating Performances“