Research
PhD Candidate in Drama, Theatre and Performance at the University of Sussex
On the Mend: Engaging sexual/gendered trauma through feminist performance
Research Interests
I have been committed to raising and improving public awareness of the systemic scale of sexual and gendered trauma for over a decade. Originally commencing my investigation through my practice, internationally touring Anne Meets Jeffrey, I was motivated to design a PhD project with far-reaching impact, allowing myself time to conduct a substantial body of critically engaged research.
My doctoral research adopts a queer feminist lens of failure as a means to engage with sexual/gendered trauma in performance. It builds on seminal work in queer and feminist theory, performance studies and trauma studies, focusing on the hopeful—and hopeless—potentialities of failure and applying these critical frameworks specifically to feminist modes of performing trauma.
With a focus on developing trauma-informed strategies of care for performance to deal with lived trauma, my research interrogates what tools, if any, live performance can offer to access and improve circuits of disclosure, witnessing and 'collective' affective experience—and the kinds of ethical challenges engendered.
Alongside my doctoral studies, I’ve founded the Close to My Heart research culture initiative that connects researchers at the University of Sussex working autoethnographically across a range of disciplines. With colleagues from the Sussex Centre for Gender Studies, I’ve co-founded the Sexual Violence Research Cafe network.
Research Awards and Funding
The Adam Weiler PGR Impact Award
University of Sussex | 2025
Media, Arts and Humanities Research Culture Fund
University of Sussex | 2025
Sussex Researcher-led Initiative Fund Award
Research Culture Strand
University of Sussex | 2024/25
Sussex Research Culture Award: PGR Ethical Research Award
Runner-up | University of Sussex | 2024
Sussex Researcher-led Initiative Fund Award
Mental Health Strand
University of Sussex | 2023/24
Media, Arts and Humanities Doctoral Fund
University of Sussex | 2022, 2023, 2024
Conference Presentations
‘FUCK CATHARSIS’: Resurrecting gendered trauma in Carolina Bianchi’s A Noiva e o Boa Noite Cinderela
TaPRA Annual Conference
University of Warwick | 2025
Swan Song: Sing Her to Me. Roundtable discussion with artist Remi Rana-Allen
The Centre for Gender Studies
University of Sussex | 2024
Plenary: Closing Reflections on the 'Creative and Critical’
CHASE Encounters Conference
University of Sussex | 2024
Disclosure, visibility, believability: Survivor labour and responsibility in #MeToo performance
The Centre for Gender Studies Doctoral Seminar Series
University of Sussex | 2024
Disclosure, visibility, believability: Emotional labour and responsibility in #MeToo performance
Locations of (Dis)embodied Labour in Theatre and Performance Conference
University of Warwick | 2023
A victim-led approach to researching sexual/gendered trauma in Theatre and Performance
TaPRA PG Symposium: Up Close and Personal
Guildhall School of Music and Drama | 2023
Research Events Organised
Black Box Diaries: Film screening and discussion
Sexual Violence Research Cafe
University of Sussex | 2025
Close to My Heart: Autoethnographic Approaches
Jointly supported by the Sussex Researcher School
and Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities
Summer of Research | University of Sussex | 2025
Sexual Violence Research Impact Conversation
Supported by AHRC Impact Acceleration Account
Sexual Violence Research Cafe
University of Sussex | 2025
University of Sussex | 2024
Close to My Heart: PGR Perspectives
Supported by the Sussex Researcher School
University of Sussex | 2024
How to Have Sex: Film screening and discussion
Sexual Violence Research Cafe
University of Sussex | 2024