Biography

Colette Conroy, PhD, SFHEA joins the University of Cumbria from Hull University, where she was Associate Dean of Education. She is excited to be joining the University of Cumbria with its huge potential to contribute to the creative and cultural industries. Colette has a background in theatre making, including time spent as Associate Director of Graeae Theatre Company, Europe’s foremost professional theatre company of disabled people. She has degrees from the Universities of Bristol and London. Her PhD is from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Contributions to Applied Theatre and Performance studies include current service as Joint Editor of the international refereed journal, RiDE: the Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance (Routledge). Colette is the author of Theatre & The Body (Palgrave, 2010) and has just published On Access in Applied Theatre and Drama Education (Routledge, 2019) as well publishing widely on the connections between politics, bodies and performance.

Qualifications and memberships

Senior Fellow of the HEA

Academic and research interests

Joint Editor of Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 

Publications

Co-edited themed edition and edited book. Colette Conroy, Adelina Ong and Dirk Rodricks (eds.) On Access.  RiDE: the Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 23,3. August 2018 and Routledge (2019)

Chapter in collection. ‘Can the theatre be fully accessible?’ in Thinking through Theatre and Performance, ed. by Maaike Bleeker, Adrian Kear, Joe Kelleher and Heike Roms. Methuen, London, 2019.

Co-authored journal article. ‘The Not-Knowns: Memory, narrative and applied theatre’. Colette Conroy, Sarah Jane Dickenson and Giuliana Mazzoni. RiDE: the Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 23,1. February 2018.

Chapter in collection. ‘Except You: Recognition and Applied Theatre’. Participation and Performance, ed. by Helen Nicholson and Anna Harpin. Palgrave, 2016

Co-edited themed edition.  Colette Conroy, Anton Franks and Paul Sutton (eds.) Looking Back and Looking Forward: the RiDE 20th Anniversary Issue. RiDE: the Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 20.3, September 2015.

Edited themed edition.  Perspectives on Aesthetics and Participation. RiDE: the Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 20.1, February 2015, including Journal article.  ‘Aesthetics and Participation’. RiDE: the Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 20.1, February 2015.

Journal article.  ‘Paralympic Cultures: Disability as Paradigm’. Contemporary Theatre Review. 23.4, November 2013.

Co-authored book chapter.  Rikke Gürgens Gjærum and Colette Conroy. ‘Research on and within disability theatre: a conversation about methodology and disability discourse’. Forestilling, framføring, forskning: Metodologi I anvendt teaterforskning, ed. by Rikke Gürgens Gjærum and Bjørn Rasmussen. Trondheim, Akademika Forlag, 2012.

Journal article. ‘Freaks and Not Freaks: theatre and the making of crip identity’. Lambda Nordica: Journal of LGBT Studies, themed edition: Crip Theory. Spring 2012.

Monograph.  Theatre and The Body. Basingstoke, Palgrave, 2010.

Guest edited themed edition. On Disability: Creative Tensions. RiDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 14.1, October 2009.

Journal article. ‘Disability: creative tensions between drama, theatre and disability’ On Disability: Creative Tensions. RiDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 14.1, October 2009.

Recent external roles

Recent Undergraduate External Examiner at:

University of Manchester

University of Winchester

University of Reading

University of Huddersfield

External PhD Examiner at:

University of Warwick (2019)

Kings College London (2017)

University of Reading (2017)

Griffith University, Australia (2015)