supervisory expertise
I am deeply committed to doctoral supervision and will consider proposals that align with my current research interests at the intersection of contemporary performance and medicine. As a theatre and performance scholar embedded in the medical school at King’s College London, I am well placed to support projects that intersect performance and medical education research, co-supervised with colleagues. Feel free to contact me for an informal chat if your proposed project:
- ... is founded in performance practice ie you have prior training in performance-making (usually MA level) and your research aims to contribute to knowledge and research literature in this discipline. I have expertise in supporting practice/artistic research, though this need not be your main methodology if your project otherwise takes performance seriously.
- ... grapples with complex ideas relating to medicine and healthcare. This might include research on the lived experience/representations/concepts/ theorizations of illness, disability, healthcare, treatment, medical professional identity formation, healthcare practice, biomedical science and healthcare systems and similar. I do not supervise projects that evaluate the health impact of arts interventions for specific heath conditions.
- ... aligns with the interdisciplinary logic outlined in my recent monograph, Performance, Medicine and the Human, 2020 (see especially pp 28-29 on my critical position and pp. 173-4 on ‘performance-thinking’). Please read before getting in touch so you know whether I’d be a good fit for your project.
- ... demonstrates the value and validity of epistemologies that prioritize personal, subjective and embodied perspectives; sensory, affective and tacit knowing (eg in feminist, phenomenological and new materialist traditions); that capture and convey insights in creative and critical ways. And yet can engage with empirical paradigms if necessary eg when interacting with research and researchers in other disciplines, including potential colleagues in the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine.
- ... helps pioneer this emerging area of research within the Centre for Education in the Faculty of Life Science and Medicine at King's College London
See above for examples of the sort of projects I supervise (click images for more information of the students' projects)
experience
I have been supervising PhD students for over 10 years, 5 of these while leading the doctoral programme at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. In this role, I oversaw the doctoral journeys of over 100 students and was involved in supervising another 8 students in addition to those above. During my time at Guildhall, I expanded the size and scope of programme, making it one of the largest in the UK conservatoire sector, and refined the School’s vision for practitioner-centred research. This contributed to the School's outstanding results in REF 2021. I have examined 8 PhD & MRes projects.
ethos
I believe
- ...that doctoral study as a profound process of identity formation, especially for those who initially identify as theatre artists
- ... in supervising the whole person, rather than ‘just’ their project, which sometimes means engaging with the emotional aspects of doing a PhD
- ... in being a sounding board for your explorations and experimentations, rather than teaching or telling (except when I’m involved in research training)
- ...in encouraging independence and self-motivation, while providing consistent support
- ...in inducting you into the 'culture' of research and supporting you to find your communities of practice
