Geraldine (Gerry) Harris, Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, Lancaster University

Gerry Harris has a BA and an MA in Drama from Manchester and a PhD from Lancaster. Before coming to focus on contemporary theatre and performance, Gerry's early research was into women performers in 19th Century French popular theatre, specifically the Café-Concert and the Music Hall. She published on this area in New Theatre Quarterly, The Drama Review (TDR) and in The New Woman and Her Sisters, edited by Viv Gardner and Susan Rutherford ( London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992).

Since the early 1980s, she has also worked as a devisor, writer, adapter and director both inside and outside H.E. This includes works with Insomniac Productions, such as her rewriting and redirecting of the show Clare De Luz for the Munich Spielart Festival in 1995, and her writing of the text for With The Light On, a short film by Third Angel, nominated for best script at the British short film festival in 1996.

While at Lancaster, Gerry helped set up PALATINE and for much of its life has acted as either Director or Co-Director of this organisation. She is currently Director.

Between 2003 and 2006 Gerry was a member of research panel 7 (performing arts) for the AHRC, and from 2006 a member of the AHRC peer review panel. She is a member of the editorial board of Studies in Theatre and Performance and alsofor Arts and Humanities in Higher Education.

Gerry's move into focussing on the politics of subjectivity and identity in contemporary theatre and performance was reflected in articles for The Contemporary Theatre Review, New Theatre Quarterly and Studies in Theatre Production and in her 1999 monograph Staging Feminities Performance and Performativity (Manchester University Press), which considers performances by Rose English, Bobby Baker and Annie Sprinkle. This was followed by a period of consolidating her research into the aesthetics and politics of television drama, which resulted in her monograph Beyond Representation: Television Drama and the Politics and Aesthetics of Identity, Manchester University Press (2006).

In 2003, with Professor Elaine Aston, she was awarded a large grant by the AHRC for a three year research project entitled Women's Writing for Performance (project website ). This included workshops with Jenny Éclair, Bobby Baker, Vayu Naidu, Curious, Jackie Kay, Sarah Daniels, Rebecca Prichard, SuAndi Gilly Adams and Geddy Anskil and Marisa Carnesky. The project culminated in an International Symposium held at Lancaster University in April 2006 and an 'Artist's Forum at the Theatre Museum in London in November 2006. It has resulted in two book publications, Feminist Futures? Theatre, Theory, Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) and Process and Practice: Contemporary [Women] Practitioners: (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

Potential Doctoral Proposals

Gerry would be happy to supervise postgraduate students interested in any issues related to her research areas. She has in the past supervised to successful completion PhD Students on the following topics: Millennial anxiety in the work of Rose English, English, Forced Entertainment and Insomniac, heritage and site specific performance, narrative in contemporary experimental performance (Imitating the dog, Desperate Optimists, Insomniac, the Wooster Group), multi media in contemporary performance (Uninvited Guests, Station House Opera, the Wooster Group, Fura del Baus) as well as on topics relating to feminism and gender politics in theatre and performance. These include PhD's with practice as research elements.

She is currently supervising postgraduates working on representations of masculinity in crises in theatre and performance,the erotics of circus, issues of participtation and democracry in contemporary performance, issues of teaching citizenship in schools in the UK and Uganda.

Publications since 2001

Beyond Representation: Television Drama and the Politics and Aesthetics of Identity, Manchester University Press: 2006.

Practice and Process: Contemporary [Women] Practitioners, Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris, Palgrave Macmillan: 2007.

Feminist Futures? Theatre, Theory, Performance,, Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris (eds.), Palgrave Macmillan: 2007. Includes co-authored introduction and chapter.

'How to Shop' and 'Integrity the Essential Ingredient' in Bobby Baker: Redeeming Features of Daily Life, Bobby Baker and Michele Barrett (eds.), Routledge: 2007.

'It's Good To Look at One's Own Shadow: A Women's International Festival and Questions For International Feminism', co-authored with Elaine Aston and Lena Simic Anderson in Feminist Futures? Theatre, Theory, Performance, Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris (eds.), Palgrave Macmillan: 2006, pp.169-189.

'Turing Test: doo-cot's Frankenstein the Final Blasphemy' in Performing Nature: Explorations in Ecology and the Arts, Gabriella Giannachi and Nigel Stewart (eds.), Berne: Peter Lang: 2006, pp.133-46.

'Susan and Darren : The Appearance of Authenticity', Performance Research, 13:4, 2008, pp.4-15

'Watching Whoopi: The Politics and Ethics of the Ethics of Witnessing', Performance Paradigm, 5:1, 2009 (on-line journal) http://performanceparadigm.net/

'Foreshadowings and After Blows: Fiona Templeton's The Medead', Studies in Theatre and Performance, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2004: pp. 165-177. Also available on line at Foreshadowings and After Blows, as part of AHRC funded Presence Project' based at University of Exeter UK and Stanford University US.

'Double Acts, Theatrical Couples in Split Britches Double Agency', New Theatre Quarterly, Vol. 18, Part 3, August 2002, pp. 211-222. Also available on line via Double Acts

2006, Co-Producer with Elaine Aston and Suzi Wood on Split Britches edited video documentation of practice as research, a workshop ledby Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw.

2004 Co-Producer with Elaine Aston and Lena Simic, Performing Words, edited video documentation of practice as research, a workshop led by Gilly Adams and Geddy Anskil.

2007 Susan and Darren , A Manchester Tale, PSi , New York. 2006 'Embodied Knowledges, The Women's Writing For Performance Project' at the University of Melbourne and the University of New South Wales. 2006 'Embodied Knowlegdes', Opening paper at the International Symposium on Women's Writing for Performance., Lancaster April 2006. This paper was also webcast. 2005 'Self Conscious Interventions', for Mapping Performance, international seminar, University of Leeds. 2005 'Beyond Performativity' for research seminar at Central School of Speech and Drama, London. 2003 'Roots in Transit', an international feminist theatre Festival and Questions for International feminism, with Elaine Aston presented to the Feminist Working Group at the International Federation for Theatre Research Conference, St Petersburg. 2002 Panel discussion with Annie Sprinkle at the Centre for Contemporary Arts as part of Glasgay International Theatre Festival. 2002 'Fiona Templeton's The Medead (In Progress)', for International Federation for Theatre Research, World Congress, Amsterdam. 2001 'Between Fantasy and The Possible in the Work of Split Britches', presented to seminar group at American Association for Theatre Research, University of San Diego, California.

Eprints Publications Repository and Bibliographic Database

Harris, Geraldine (2008) Susan and Darren : the appearance of authenticity. Performance Research, 13 (4). pp. 4-15. ISSN 1469-9990

Harris, G. M. and Aston, E. (2007) Performance Practice and Process: Contemporary [Women] Practitioners. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230001541

Harris, G. M. and Aston, E. (2006) Feminist Futures? Theatre, Theory, Performance. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403945327

Harris, G. M. (2006) Turing Test: doo-cot Theatre Company's Frankenstein : The Final Blasphemy and the limits of the (post) human. In: Performing Nature: Explorations in Ecology and the Arts. Berne: Peter Lang. ISBN 3039105574

Skip Links \| Access/General info

You are here: Sociology Home > Centre for Gender & Women's Studies
Home About Us People Research Prospective Students Current Students News & Events Contact Us SEARCH this site using Keywords/Tags or Full Text. Go»	Professor Geraldine (Gerry) Harris Professor of Theatre Studies Degree: BA, MA Drama (Manchester) PhD Lancaster. Theatre Studies Associated research centres and groups: Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, Centre for the Advanced Study of Contemporary Performance Practice, Theatre Studies Current Teaching At present at undergraduate level Gerry teaches Devising and Television Drama Research Interests BACKGROUND Gerry Harris has a BA and an MA in Drama from Manchester and a PhD from Lancaster. Before coming to focus on contemporary theatre and performance, Gerry's early research was into women performers in 19th Century French popular theatre, specifically the Café-Concert and the Music Hall. She published on this area in New Theatre Quarterly, The Drama Review (TDR) and in The New Woman and Her Sisters, edited by Viv Gardner and Susan Rutherford ( London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992). Since the early 1980s, she has also worked as a devisor, writer, adapter and director both inside and outside H.E. This includes works with Insomniac Productions, such as her rewriting and redirecting of the show Clare De Luz for the Munich Spielart Festival in 1995, and her writing of the text for With The Light On, a short film by Third Angel, nominated for best script at the British short film festival in 1996. While at Lancaster, Gerry helped set up PALATINE and for much of its life has acted as either Director or Co-Director of this organisation. She is currently Director. Between 2003 and 2006 Gerry was a member of research panel 7 (performing arts) for the AHRC, and from 2006 a member of the AHRC peer review panel. She is a member of the editorial board of Studies in Theatre and Performance and alsofor Arts and Humanities in Higher Education. CURRENT RESEARCH Gerry's move into focussing on the politics of subjectivity and identity in contemporary theatre and performance was reflected in articles for The Contemporary Theatre Review, New Theatre Quarterly and Studies in Theatre Production and in her 1999 monograph Staging Feminities Performance and Performativity (Manchester University Press), which considers performances by Rose English, Bobby Baker and Annie Sprinkle. This was followed by a period of consolidating her research into the aesthetics and politics of television drama, which resulted in her monograph Beyond Representation: Television Drama and the Politics and Aesthetics of Identity, Manchester University Press (2006). In 2003, with Professor Elaine Aston, she was awarded a large grant by the AHRC for a three year research project entitled Women's Writing for Performance (project website ). This included workshops with Jenny Éclair, Bobby Baker, Vayu Naidu, Curious, Jackie Kay, Sarah Daniels, Rebecca Prichard, SuAndi Gilly Adams and Geddy Anskil and Marisa Carnesky. The project culminated in an International Symposium held at Lancaster University in April 2006 and an 'Artist's Forum at the Theatre Museum in London in November 2006. It has resulted in two book publications, Feminist Futures? Theatre, Theory, Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) and Process and Practice: Contemporary [Women] Practitioners: (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). Potential Doctoral Proposals Gerry would be happy to supervise postgraduate students interested in any issues related to her research areas. She has in the past supervised to successful completion PhD Students on the following topics: Millennial anxiety in the work of Rose English, English, Forced Entertainment and Insomniac, heritage and site specific performance, narrative in contemporary experimental performance (Imitating the dog, Desperate Optimists, Insomniac, the Wooster Group), multi media in contemporary performance (Uninvited Guests, Station House Opera, the Wooster Group, Fura del Baus) as well as on topics relating to feminism and gender politics in theatre and performance. These include PhD's with practice as research elements. She is currently supervising postgraduates working on representations of masculinity in crises in theatre and performance,the erotics of circus, issues of participtation and democracry in contemporary performance, issues of teaching citizenship in schools in the UK and Uganda. Publications since 2001 Monograph Beyond Representation: Television Drama and the Politics and Aesthetics of Identity, Manchester University Press: 2006. Co-authored book Practice and Process: Contemporary [Women] Practitioners, Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris, Palgrave Macmillan: 2007. Edited Book Feminist Futures? Theatre, Theory, Performance,, Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris (eds.), Palgrave Macmillan: 2007. Includes co-authored introduction and chapter. Chapters in books 'How to Shop' and 'Integrity the Essential Ingredient' in Bobby Baker: Redeeming Features of Daily Life, Bobby Baker and Michele Barrett (eds.), Routledge: 2007. 'It's Good To Look at One's Own Shadow: A Women's International Festival and Questions For International Feminism', co-authored with Elaine Aston and Lena Simic Anderson in Feminist Futures? Theatre, Theory, Performance, Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris (eds.), Palgrave Macmillan: 2006, pp.169-189. 'Turing Test: doo-cot's Frankenstein the Final Blasphemy' in Performing Nature: Explorations in Ecology and the Arts, Gabriella Giannachi and Nigel Stewart (eds.), Berne: Peter Lang: 2006, pp.133-46. Articles 'Susan and Darren : The Appearance of Authenticity', Performance Research, 13:4, 2008, pp.4-15 > 'Watching Whoopi: The Politics and Ethics of the Ethics of Witnessing', Performance Paradigm, 5:1, 2009 (on-line journal) http://performanceparadigm.net/ 'Foreshadowings and After Blows: Fiona Templeton's The Medead', Studies in Theatre and Performance, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2004: pp. 165-177. Also available on line at Foreshadowings and After Blows, as part of AHRC funded Presence Project' based at University of Exeter UK and Stanford University US. 'Double Acts, Theatrical Couples in Split Britches Double Agency', New Theatre Quarterly, Vol. 18, Part 3, August 2002, pp. 211-222. Also available on line via Double Acts Other 2006 Dramaturg on the show Crowhurst for Benchtours Theatre. 2006, Co-Producer with Elaine Aston and Suzi Wood on Split Britches edited video documentation of practice as research, a workshop ledby Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw. 2004 Co-Producer with Elaine Aston and Lena Simic, Performing Words, edited video documentation of practice as research, a workshop led by Gilly Adams and Geddy Anskil. Selected Conference and Seminar Papers 2007 Susan and Darren , A Manchester Tale, PSi , New York. 2006 'Embodied Knowledges, The Women's Writing For Performance Project' at the University of Melbourne and the University of New South Wales. 2006 'Embodied Knowlegdes', Opening paper at the International Symposium on Women's Writing for Performance., Lancaster April 2006. This paper was also webcast. 2005 'Self Conscious Interventions', for Mapping Performance, international seminar, University of Leeds. 2005 'Beyond Performativity' for research seminar at Central School of Speech and Drama, London. 2003 'Roots in Transit', an international feminist theatre Festival and Questions for International feminism, with Elaine Aston presented to the Feminist Working Group at the International Federation for Theatre Research Conference, St Petersburg. 2002 Panel discussion with Annie Sprinkle at the Centre for Contemporary Arts as part of Glasgay International Theatre Festival. 2002 'Fiona Templeton's The Medead (In Progress)', for International Federation for Theatre Research, World Congress, Amsterdam. 2001 'Between Fantasy and The Possible in the Work of Split Britches', presented to seminar group at American Association for Theatre Research, University of San Diego, California. Eprints Publications Repository and Bibliographic Database Geraldine (Gerry) Harris has 7 selected publication records listed on this webpage. Use links to access abstracts and full text where available. View all records to sort by date, type and title. For all ePrints records go to http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk Harris, Geraldine (2008) Susan and Darren : the appearance of authenticity. Performance Research, 13 (4). pp. 4-15. ISSN 1469-9990 Harris, G. M. and Aston, E. (2007) Performance Practice and Process: Contemporary [Women] Practitioners. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230001541 Harris, G. M. (2006) Beyond Representation: Television Drama and the Politics and Aesthetics of Identity. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719074584 Harris, G. M. and Aston, E. (2006) Feminist Futures? Theatre, Theory, Performance. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403945327 Harris, G. M. (2006) Turing Test: doo-cot Theatre Company's Frankenstein : The Final Blasphemy and the limits of the (post) human. In: Performing Nature: Explorations in Ecology and the Arts. Berne: Peter Lang. ISBN 3039105574 Harris, Gerry (1999) Repetition, quoting, plagerism and iterability (Europe after the rain - again). Studies in Theatre Production, 19. Associated Keywords: Aesthetics, Contemporary women's writing, Culture and media, Femininities, Gender identities, Performance, Performance and historical studies, Performance practice, Popular culture, Racialisation, Television, Theatre studies View all research activities, ePrints, news and events associated with Geraldine (Gerry) Harris. «Back	Contact Details Tel: 01524 594153 Room: Theatre Studies Annexes, View Staff Profiles Centre for Gender and Women's Studies Staff All Faculty Staff Search Faculty by Keyword
\| Home \| About Us \| People \| Research \| \| Prospective Students \| Current Students \| News & Events \| Contact Us \|

Professor Geraldine (Gerry) Harris

Current Teaching

Research Interests

Potential Doctoral Proposals

Publications since 2001

Eprints Publications Repository and Bibliographic Database

Contact Details

View Staff Profiles