Professor Deirdre Heddon
- James Arnott Chair in Drama (Theatre, Film & 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
- 2019: PI, SGSAH AHRC DTP2 £16,995,000
- 2019: PI, SFC SGSAH £1,200,000
- 2018: PI, AHRC Creative Economies Fellowships, £250,000
- 2018: PI, AHRC Creative Economies Fellowships, £250,000
- 2018: PI, AHRC Creative Economies Placements, £90,000
- 2018: PI, AHRC Creative Economies Fellowships, £250,000
- 2017: PI, AHRC Creative Economies Doctoral Studentships, £900,000
- 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. - Milliken, Conner
Queer History-Making in Performance: Interrogating Scotland’s Narrative of Liberalisation - 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
Teaching
I teach across levels and contribute to a number of courses. Teaching has included:
- Autobiography and Performance (Hons)
- Documentary Theatre (Hons)
- Reading the Stage (Level 1)
- Honours Dissertations
- Independent Research Practice (Masters)
- Masters Dissertations
Additional Information
Management
Dee is the Deputy Head of the College of Arts and in that capacity is an active member of the College’s Management Group.
She is also the founding Director 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 100 organisations across all sectors. SGSAH also manages the AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership which supports doctoral funding across Scotland.
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/
External Responsibilities
- 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
- Board of Directors, Take Me Somewhere Festival
- REF Panel Member UoA34 2021/22
Awards
It’s All Allowed: The Performances of Adrian Howells, co-edited with Dominic Johnson, won the 2018 TaPRA Research Prize for Editing (Essay Collections and Special Issues).
