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Ann-Christine Simke

Dr

Accepting PhD Students

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20152024

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Overview

I joined the UWS Performance team in December 2022. Prior to my appointment at UWS, I worked as Postdoctoral Researcher in Theatre Studies at University of Bern in Switzerland (2021-22), as Assistant Lecturer in Drama and Performance at Queen Margaret University in Musselburgh (2020-21) and as Teaching Assistant in Theatre Studies at Glasgow University (2017-20) where I completed my PhD in 2016.

My teaching and research is concerned with dramaturgical practices and histories, institutional aesthetics in a European perspective, decolonial and postcolonial approaches to theatre practice and research as well as intersectional analyses of performance.

In addition to my academic work, I specialise in dramaturgy practice and cultural curating. From 2015-19, I worked as cultural programmer for the German cultural institute Goethe-Institut in Glasgow.

 

Area of academic expertise - outline

My academic expertise encompasses the history and contemporary practice of dramaturgy, institutional aesthetics and change, decolonial and postcolonial critique and intersectional analyses as well as a specific focus on German-speaking theatre.

While my MA thesis focused on dramaturgical approaches in contemporary devised theatre in Germany and the UK, my doctoral thesis Berlinische Dramaturgien – Dramaturgical Practices in the German Metropolis explored institutional dramaturgical practices in Berlin theatres in the 20th and 21st century. It specifically dealt with the status of material and immaterial ephemera in communication with audiences, thus focussing not only on theatres programmes, flyers and posters but also featuring an analysis of digital practices and aesthetics that contribute to an overall profile of a theatre institution. This investigation led me to think more deeply about institutional aesthetics and politics and what factors lead to deep institutional change and how this change affects theatre making.

Leading on from this is this my interest in how postcolonial and decolonial critique applies to the field of theatre and performance practice, institutions and studies in the Global North. Together with a collective of international performance scholars, I founded the research network New Critical Theatre Studies - a network concerned with intersectional analyses of performance practices, activism and art and anti-racist theory and practice.

Current research activities

I am currently researchering and co-writing a book on intersectional performance practices with Anika Marschall (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2025). My recent co-edited volume on Dramaturgy of War with Anselm Heinrich came out in December 2023. 

Current teaching activities and interests

At UWS, I am currently teaching on the modules Performance Histories, Creative Festival and Creative Research Project. I am supervisor for BA and MA dissertations as well as PhD projects. 

In my teaching, I seek to combine my experience in dramaturgical practice with my interest in postcolonial and decolonial critique and to inspire students to think about their creative practice as a socially, politically and historically situated one.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 4 - Quality Education
  • SDG 5 - Gender Equality
  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

External positions

Academic Advisor, Stellar Quines (Theatre Company)

2022 → …

Keywords

  • NX Arts in general
  • Dramaturgy
  • Institutional Change
  • Institutional Aesthetics
  • Decolonial and Postcolonial Theory
  • Theatre Historiography
  • Intersectionality
  • Contemporary German-Speaking Theatre

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