Professor Deirdre Heddon
- James Arnott Chair in Drama (Theatre, Film and Television Studies)
- Dean of the Scottish Graduate School for the Arts & Humanities (Arts Administration)
telephone: 01413302645
email: Deirdre.Heddon@glasgow.ac.uk
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9136-2151Research interests
My doctoral research focused on feminism and live art and my commitment to contemporary performance and theatre practices persists. Significant publications include Devising Performance: A Critical History (Palgrave Macmillan 2005), co-authored with Jane Milling, Autobiography and Performance (Palgrave Macmillan 2008), The National Review of Live Art 1979 - 2010: A Personal History - essays, anecdotes, drawings and images (New Moves International 2010), Histories and Practices of Live Art, co-edited with Jennie Klein (Palgrave Macmillan 2012) and It’s All Allowed: The Performances of Adrian Howells, co-edited with Dominic Johnson (Intellect and LADA 2016).
Another enduring interest has been walking aesthetics, with the publication of numerous articles alongside practice-based research (see, for example, Walking, Writing and Performance: Autobiographical Texts, ed. Roberta Mock (Intellect Books 2009) and walks.wordpress.com/, walkinglibraryproject. wordpress.com/, walkinginterconnections.com/) This focus on walking has led to my latest research project, a study of the relationship between forests and performance. My monograph will be part of a new series which I am co-editing with Professor Sally Mackey, Performing Landscapes (Palgrave Macmillan).
walkinglibraryproject.wordpress.com
Grants
- 2015: PI, Creative Scotland, £15,000
- 2014: Scottish Funding Council (PI) £1,800,800
- 2014: CI, AHRC Connected Communities Festival, £25,000
- 2014: PI, AHRC, Being Human Festival, £1,500
- 2013: AHRC DTP Scotland (PI) £16,200,000
- 2013: CI, AHRC Connected Communities, £31,744
- 2013: PI, AHRC Skills Development £40,000
- 2012: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award £54,504
- 2012: AHRC Skills Development £59,200
- 2012: Carnegie £1620
- 2008-09: British Academy Small Grants £2474
- 2007-10: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award £50,000
- 2006-09: AHRC Creative Fellowship (Adrian Howells) £170,266
- 2005/6: AHRC Research Leave Scheme £14,000
- 2004: AHRB Small Grants in the Creative and Performing Arts £2,000
- 2001: AHRB Small Grants in the Creative and Performing Arts £836
- 1992: SAAS PhD Scholarship
Supervision
I welcome PhD and Masters by Research applications from students in the areas of contemporary performance and theatre practice, including practice-based or practice-led research. I have particular interests in: auto/biographical work, including documentary and verbatim drama; environmental performance/performance and ecology; walking aesthetics; feminist performance and live art; and collaborative forms of theatre practice.
Graduated PhD students
- Sarah Hopfinger, 'Performance (in) ecology: A practice-based approach’
- Cara Berger, ‘Lacanian Feminist Theory in Relation to Postdramatic Performance Practice'
- Lucy Amsden, ‘The Teacher and the Clown – the Pedagogy of Philippe Gaulier’
- Clare Louise Duffy, 'Practice as Research: Writing a Queer Aesthetic'
- David Overend, 'Underneath the Arches: Developing a relational performance aesthetic in response to a specific cultural site'
- Laura Bissell, 'The Posthuman Body in Performance’
- Buddle, Tessa
Utopia on Tour: exploring a contingent dramaturgy of utopia in contemporary touring theatre - Clive, Rachel
Geodiversity and human difference: disability, landscape form and process - Holton, Simon
Artist Collectives and Collective Art Practices in UK Live Art in the Years of Austerity Politics (2010-2018) - Knotts, Jennifer
Play/writing histories: Navigating the Personal, Public and Institutional stories of theatre space: An Architextural study of the Citizens Theatre. - Shutt, Helen
Play/writing Participation: Textual techniques employed by the playwright to create space for audience participation and co-authorship in performance - Wilson, Francis Marion Moseley
(Un)Sanitizing Death as Process: Bodies and Boundaries through Performing Taxidermy - Wilson, Harry
Practising with Barthes: encounters between performance and photography.
Teaching
I teach a range of courses:
- Autobiography and Performance (Hons)
- Documentary Theatre (Hons)
- Reading the Stage (Level 1)
- Honours Dissertations
- Independent Research Practice (Masters)
- Masters Dissertations
Additional Information
Management
Deirdre Heddon is the founding Dean of the Scottish Graduate School for the Arts & Humanities (SGSAH), the first and only such national graduate school in the world. The SGSAH, founded in 2014, is co-funded by the Scottish Funding Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. A membership organisation, it serves 16 HEIs across Scotland and works in partnership with more than 30 non-academic organisations. The ambition of the SGSAH is to provide doctoral researchers in Arts & Humanities across Scotland with access to the best training, the best resources and world-leading expertise. For further information, see sgsah.ac.uk/
In 2015, Dee was appointed Deputy Head of the College of Arts at the University of Glasgow.
External Responsibilities
- Executive Committee, UKCGE
- Advisory Group, AHRC Research Careers and Training
- AHRC Peer Review College
- Editorial Board Member of RiDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance (Routledge); Studies in Theatre & Performance (Intellect) and Performing Ethos (Intellect)
- Advisory Board, Contemporary Theatre Review (Routledge)
- Board of Directors, conFAB
- Advisory Board, Walking Institute (Deveron Arts)
