I am an early career researcher specialising in casting, identity, and aesthetic labour in contemporary UK performance contexts.

I studied for my AHRC-funded PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, where I wrote my thesis on casting and the construction of femininity in contemporary performance.  My research examined how the embodied characteristics of the actors playing Shakespeare’s women serve to perpetuate hegemonic notions of gender.

Immediately after completing my PhD, I worked as a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance at Royal Holloway.  In 2019, I undertook an AHRC-funded Creative Economy Engagement Fellowship leading the “Making an Appearance” project in collaboration with the Women’s Committee of performers’ trade union, Equity.  This research project examined performers’ experiences of aesthetic labour and the project report is available here.  The project's findings were covered in The Stage newspaper and have been cited in parliament.

My work has appeared in a number of peer-reviewed journals including Shakespeare, Shakespeare Bulletin, Theatre Notebook, and Studies in Costume and Performance. I have also contributed chapters to collected editions published by Routledge, Palgrave, Bloomsbury, and Cambridge University Press.  Publications span a range of topics relating to casting and embodiment including fat suits, age, and the work of supernumerary performers.  I am currently co-editing a special edition on casting and identity for Studies in Theatre and Performance.

As well as my research into casting, I am also a practitioner with a particular interest in feminist and queer stagings of classical plays.  I have published on a variety of aspects of practice including rehearsal studies, feminist dramaturgy, and scholarship-informed practice.  In 2018, I collaborated with the AHRC “Performing Restoration Shakespeare” project as an embedded scholar on a production of Davenant’s Macbeth at the Folger Theatre in Washington DC. I am currently working on a practice-as-research project exploring depictions of domestic abuse in performance.

I attended a comprehensive school in Somerset before studying for a BA in English at the University of Cambridge.  My undergraduate studies inspired an interest in both Shakespeare and gender, and I went on to study for MAs in Shakespearean Studies and in Gender Studies at the University of London. 

Alongside my work in theatre and performance, I also conduct research into academic development.  Current projects include studies exploring playful pedagogy and fostering student belonging in HE.