Postgraduate Research Supervisors

We recommend that you get in contact with either the Director of Postgraduate or a selected supervisor before making a formal application to study for a PhD. Please see below a list of our potential principal supervisors:

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Prof Catherine McNamara

Research interests

My work has included practice research into the benefits of voice workshops for transgender communities, a collaborative play-writing project run in conjunction with Fringe Benefits Theatre Company (Los Angeles, US), which led to a performance and workshop being delivered nationally (2008-2011), INTERarts, an intergenerational arts project with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer identified people and more recently the TransActing project, a collaboration between the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, My Genderation and Gendered Intelligence.

My work usually involves engagement with community participants as a significant element. My work was the focus of an Impact Case Study in REF2014 for example. The research I undertake informs and is informed by my arts practice with a wide range of collaborators and participants.

Recent publications include ‘Methods and Approaches for Working with Trans, Non-binary and Gender Diverse Young People in the UK’ in The Handbook of Youth Work Practice, Eds. Pam Alldred, Fiona Cullen et al, London: SAGE (2018) and ‘A Complex Matrix of Identities: Working Intergenerationally with LGBTQ people’ in Minding the Knowledge Gap, eds. Sue Westwood and Andrew King, London: Routledge (2018).

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Dr Georgia Bowers

Dr Georgia Bowers is an applied theatre practitioner, theatre maker, producer and educator. Her professional engagements include the Royal Opera House, Chichester Festival Theatre, Brighton People's Theatre, Spare Tyre, Young Carers: Bucks, London Bubble, Hampstead Theatre, Almeida Theatre, Centre Point, Watford Palace Theatre and Theatre Royal Windsor.

Georgia's applied theatre practice and research examines how theatre with older adults can be used as a tool to combat ageism, negotiate ageist induced shame and encourage shame resilience. Her artistic work occurs in care homes, day centres, sheltered housing accomidation, hospitals and via online video platforms. Her practice and research has been shared throughout North America and Europe.

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Professor Anna McNamara

Actor training; pedagogy; musical theatre; dance.

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Stewart Nichols

Director, Choreographer and Musical Stager.

Musical Theatre History Archivist, Lecturer and Author

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Professor Robert Shaughnessy

Shakespeare in performance, theatre history, applied performance (especially in relation to disability/diversity), twentieth/twenty-first century British drama, actor pedagogy and training.

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Dr Darren Tunstall

Gesture in performance; Shakespeare; physical performance and Lecoq; cognitive science and performance.

Dr Matthew Wagner

Shakespearean dramaturgy and stage praxis; theatrical temporality; Beckett and his contemporaries; embodiment and spatiality; theatre phenomenology.

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Dr Julian Woolford

Musical theatre; directing; scriptwriting.