Research

My two main research interests are in ecology, environment, and landscape and contemporary French theatre and performance. I am particularly interested in notions of sustainability, reclamation and resilience, and in exploring the relationship between ‘natural’, ‘cultural’ and ‘social’ ecology. I have worked closely with artists, policy makers and local stakeholders on these issues. In 2012, I established a crossdisplinary seminar series with Professor Deborah Dixon in Geography (IGES) called ‘Performing Ecology and Environment’. This research builds on my previous work on the politics and ethics of site-based performance in France and the UK. I am the Research Leader for the theatre curriculum group.

 I am happy to accept PhD applications in any of the listed above. I supervise 7 PhD students at the minute, 4 of whom work in the interstice between theatre, ecology and landscape.

 In 2006-8, I was co-investigator on the AHRC Landscape and Environment Network Grant, ‘Re-enchantment and Reclaimation: New Perceptions of Morecambe Bay’.

 In 2009, I was on the advisory board for the AHRC Landscape and Environment Conference, ‘Living Landscapes’

 I am currently working on a large grant with colleagues in other institutions in the UK exploring ‘Creative Resilience’. This came out of an AHRC workshop in Bristol 2012.

 I am a reader for several leading journals and publishers in the field, and am on the editorial boards of Performance Research, and Performance and Spirituality.

Biography

Carl Lavery studied French and Philosophy at University College, Aberystwyth and completed an MA (1995) and PhD (2001) in avant-garde performance and politics at the University of East Anglia. He was awarded an Entente Cordiale Scholarship by the French Embassy in 2001 and carried out postgraduate work at the Université de Paris VIII in 2001-2. Since returning to the UK, he has taught at the University of East Anglia, De Montfort University (Leicester) and Loughborough University.

Teaching

I am module leader for:

TP 20720 – Making Theatre/Making History

TP 32820 – Place, Space and Landscape

 

I also teach on:

TP10320 – Text Workshop

TP 20320 – Modern European Drama

TP21020 – Contemporary European Drama

I also teach on the MA in Practising Performance.

I have externally examined 8 PhDs in France and the UK since 2008.

 

 

Publications

Books

Jean Genet: Performance and Politics, eds, Carl Lavery, Maria Shevtsova and Clare Finburgh, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Sacred Theatres (with Franc Chamberlain, Ralph Yarrow), Exeter: Intellect, 2007.

Walking and Autobiography: Performance Writing, Dee Heddon, Carl Lavery & Phil Smith, ed. Roberta Mock, Exeter: Intellect, 2009.

Spaces of Revolution: The Politics of Jean Genet’s Late Theatre (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010.

Contemporary French Performance, eds. Carl Lavery and Clare Finburgh, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

‘Good Luck Everybody’: Lone Twin – Journeys, Conversations, and Performances, eds. David Williams and Carl Lavery, Aberystwyth: Performance Research Books, 2011.

Site-Specificity and the Practice of Location: Processes, Performances, Writing  (with Andrew Filmer, MUP, 2013/14, forthcoming).

 

Edited Journals

‘On Foot,’ Performance Research 17: 2, eds. Carl Lavery and Nicolas Whybrow 2012.

 

Articles in Journals

Alienation Effects in Jean Genet’s Les Nègres’, Norwich Papers: Essays in Memory of Janine Deakins and Michael Parkinson, 4, 1997, 313-19.

‘Postmodern Rituals at la Cartoucherie’,  Entente Cordiale Journal, 2,  2001.

* ‘The Politics of the Wound: Jean Genet’s Ethical Commitment’, Journal of European Studies, 33:2, 2003, 161-76.

‘Interview with Anna Best: Performance and the Art of City Living’, Live Art Magazine, December 2003.

*‘Jean Genet and the Politics of Sacred Theatre’ (with Ralph Yarrow), Journal of Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, 5:1, 2004.

‘*Conference Report; Jean Genet: Deconstructionist or Utopian’, New Theatre Quarterly, 80, CUP, 2004, 192-4.

‘*The Pepys of Ell: The Politics of Linked’, New Theatre Quarterly, 82, 2005, 148-60.

‘*Walking The Walk; Talking The Talk: An Interview with Graeme Miller’, New Theatre Quarterly, 82, 2005, 161-5.

*’ 25 Instructions for Performance in Cities’, Special Edition of Studies in Theatre and Performance: Teaching Performance Studies, 25:3, 2005, 229-238.

‘*The State of Genet Studies’, Contemporary Theatre Review, 15:4, 2005, 470-5.

‘*Between Negativity and Resistance: Genet and Committed Theatre’, Contemporary Theatre Review, 16:2, 2006, 220-34.

‘Eight Entries on Futurist Performance’, 2006, http://www.lancs.ac.uk/palatine/prism.

*‘Everyday Life, Situationism and Spectacle’ (keywords), Performance Research: Lexicon, 11:3, 2006, 111-3, 118-21.

‘*Moving Through Space’ (with Lawrence Bradby), Site: Special Issue of Research in Drama Education, 12:1, 2007, 41-54.

‘The Travels of Xavier Valery’, ‘On Appearance’ Performance Research, 13: 4, 2008, pp. 93-99.

‘Is there a Text in This Performance’, ‘Performing Literature’, Performance Research, 14: 1, 2009, p. 37-49.

Lone Twin and Participation, ‘On Participation’, Performance Research, 16: 4 2011, pp.1-8

‘From La Folle Journée to Les Main Sales to La Ronde’, Contemporary Theatre Review, 21: 3, 2011, pp.  372-9.

‘Pas de Deux’ (with Nicolas Whybrow), ‘On Foot’, Performance Research, 17:2, 2012, 1-8.

‘Bringing it all Back Home: Towards an Ecology of Place, ‘On Ecology’ Performance Research 17: 4 (2012), pp. 111-19.

‘Steps Towards an Ecology of Performance’ (with Franc Chamberlain and Ralph Yarrow), University of Bucharest Review, XIV:1, 2012, pp. 1-33

 

Chapters in Books

‘Introduction’ (with Maria Shevstova and Clare Finburgh), in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, pp.1-22.

‘Reading The Blacks Through an Unpublished Preface’, in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, pp.68-78.

‘A Graveyard in the City: Genet and Situationism’, in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 95-105

‘Genet and the Politics of Abjection’ (with Paul Woodard), in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 117-27

‘Interview with Joseph Strick’, in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics., Palgrave Macmillan, 181-86.

‘Interview with Cornerstone Theatre, in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 187-92

‘Interview with Colin Chambers’, in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 208-212.

‘Interview with Terry Hands’, in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 199-207.

‘Interview with Richard Schechner’, in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 213-22.

‘Performance Writing, Narrative and Walking’, in Theatres of Thought: Theatre, Performance and Philosophy, eds. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe and Dan Watt, Cambridge Scholars: 2007, pp. 94-109.

‘Reading the Blacks Through the 1956 Preface’, in Readings in Political Performance, eds, Susan Haedicke and Aviz Oz, Amsterdam:Rodopoi, 2009, pp. 137-48.

Various articles republished , in N. Whybrow, ed., Performance and the Contemporary City: an Interdisciplinary Reader (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2010).

‘Introduction’ in Contemporary French Theatre and Performance (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011), pp.1-30

‘Montage and détournement in Contemporary French Theatre and Performance (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011), pp. 174-88

‘Introduction’, in Good Luck Everybody: Lone Twin: Journeys, Performances and Conversations, Aberystwyth: Performance Research Books, 2011, pp. 13-26.

‘First Conversation – Interview with Lone Twin’ in Good Luck Everybody: Lone Twin: Journeys, Performances and Conversations, Aberystwyth: Performance Research Books, 2011, pp. 43-65.

‘Second Conversation – Interview with Lone Twin’ Good Luck Everybody: Lone Twin: Journeys, Performances and Conversations, Aberystwyth: Performance Research Books, 2011, pp. 119-138.

‘Third Conversation – Interview with Lone Twin’ Good Luck Everybody: Lone Twin: Journeys, Performances and Conversations, Aberystwyth: Performance Research Books, 2011, pp. 187-210.

‘Fourth Conversation – Interview with Lone Twin’ Good Luck Everybody: Lone Twin: Journeys, Performances and Conversations, Aberystwyth: Performance Research Books, 2011, pp. 259-76.

‘Fifth Conversation – Interview with Lone Twin’ Good Luck Everybody: Lone Twin: Journeys, Performances and Conversations, Aberystwyth: Performance Research Books, 2011, pp. 341-354.

‘The Return of Public Men’ in Good Luck Everybody: Lone Twin: Journeys, Performances and Conversations, Aberystwyth: Performance Research Books, 2011, pp. 171-84.

‘Defying the Spirit of Gravity’ in Good Luck Everybody: Lone Twin: Journeys, Performances and Conversations, Aberystwyth: Performance Research Books, 2011, pp. 333-40.

‘Police on my Back’  in Out of Silence: Censorship in Theatre, ed. C. Svich,  New York, EyeCorner Press, 2012, pp. 107-16.

Reading Voice in ‘When I first Came to Town’’, The Art of Nick Cave: New Critical Essays, ed. J. Baker, Bristol: intellect, 2012, pp. 27-44.

‘Genet and Commitment: Politics and Aesthetics’ in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, 262, Farmington Hills: Cengage, 2012, pp. 77-93.

‘Listening to my Listening’, Performance in Post-WWII Theatre: Continuities and Discontinuities, eds Andreas Dimitriadis, Anna Stavrakopoulou, Ioulia Pipinia, AUTH Press,  Thessaloniki (forthcoming Fall 2012).

Globalization, The Glocal, Third Space Theatre’ in Performance Studies: Concepts and Theories, ed. Bryan Reynolds (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; forthcoming, 2012).

‘Performing Paris: towards an ecography of meridians and atmospheres’, Performing Cities, ed. Nicolas Whybrow (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; forthcoming 2013).

‘ A New Popular Theatre: Philippe Quesne and the Mock Heroic’, French Cultural Studies, Special Issue on Performance, 24:3 (forthcoming 2013).

28 Entries for Cambridge World Encyclopedia of Acting and Actors, ed. Simon Williams (10000 words) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2013).

 

Keynotes

2006, Imagined Landscapes, Cumbria Institute of the Arts Centre for Landscape and Environmental Arts Research (CLEAR).

October 2010 –  Performance in Post WWII Theatre, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki University.

May 2011 – Relate and Participate Symposium, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

September 2011 – The Late Genet Symposium, Nottingham Contemporary Art Gallery, Nottingham.

May 2012 – M(Other) Nature: Inscriptions, Locations, University of Bucharest, Bucharest.

September 2012 – Performing Monstrosity in the City (with Professor Deborah Dixon), Queen Mary University, London.

 

Invited Lectures

August 2006, ‘Problems of Collaboration’, International Conference on the Knowledge-Based Economy, Lancaster University.

October 2006, Performance Writing, Narrative and Walking’, Practice Reflected: End, Middle, Beginning: Adventures in Narrative, Lancaster University.

February 2007, Nine Years of Lone Twin, Lancaster University,

April 2007, ‘How to Write About Site-specific Performance’, Essex University, Department of English, Film and Drama Seminar Serie.

May 2007, ‘How To Do Things with Keywords’, Keywords Colloquium. Warwick University.

November 2007, Theatre and Performance Series, ‘ The Politics of Genet’s Aesthetics’, Goldsmith College, University of London.

February 2008, ‘Reflecting on Mourning Walk – A Creative Response to Goat Island’, The Last Maker Symposium, Lancaster University

October 2008, ‘Graffiti in the City’, Hidden City Symposium, University of Plymouth

February 2009, ‘Rancière and Politics’, TAPRA Working Group – Performance, Identity, Community, Royal Holloway, University of London.

May 2009,  ‘Rummage through Cavanagh Collection’, Centre for Performance Research, Aberystwyth University.

June 2010, ‘Site-Specificity and Location’, Departington Festival and Symposium, Dartington College of Arts.

June 2010 - Bewegung im Stadtraum / Movement in Urban Space,

International Conference with Theme Festival, University of Leipzig.

November 2010, ‘Song Theatre’, University of Chester Research Seminar Series.

April 2011, ‘ Flowers in Robinson in Ruins Symposium, Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

June 2012  ‘Ecography’, Mobilities Symposium, Queen Mary,University of London.

November 2012, ‘Ecology and Performance’, University of Huddersfield Seminar Series.

February 2013, ‘Postcards from Hashima’ (with Professor Deborah Dixon), Exeter University.

April 2013, ‘ Postcards from Hashima’,  Association of Asian Studies Conference, San Diego, California.

 

Conference Papers

January 2002, Maison Française, Oxford, Postgraduate Conference for French Studies: ‘Genet, Kristeva, and the Politics of Abjection’.

February 2002, University of East Anglia, Norwich, New Visions Conference: ‘Genet’s Journey from Sainthood to Alterity’.

November 2002, Institut Français, London, 15^th Francophone Studies Conference: ‘Performing Post-colonial Identity: Genet’s Les Nègres and Fanon’s Les Damnés de la terre’.

December 2002, New York University, MLA Annual Conference: ‘Performance as Strategy: History as Jeu in Genet’s dramatic trilogy’.

June 2003, University of East Anglia, Theatre and Performance Seminars, ‘Genet and Brecht: Street-Fighting Men’.

October 2003, University of East Anglia, Genet and Performance Symposium, ‘Theatre in a Graveyard: Genet and the Situationists’.

April 2004, University of Kent, Connecting Cultures Conference, ‘Genet and Postmodern Political Theatre’.

September 2004, University of Exeter, Site-Specific Symposium, ‘Lecture Performance of Mourning Walk’.

March 2005, University College, Northampton, SCUDD Conference, ‘Am I Being Fair to Boal?’ with Franc Chamberlain.

April 2005, Brown University, Rhode Island, USA, Becoming Uncomfortable: The 11^th  Annual Performance Studies Conference, ‘Uncomfortable in London: Sleepwalking in the Land of Ghosts’.

June 2005, University of Maryland, Washington D.C, USA, ‘Citizen Artists: Theatre, Culture and Community: IFTR Annual Conference, ‘Genet’s The Blacks: A Reading of an Unpublished Preface’.

October 2005,  University of Aberystwyth, Theatre and Performance Seminars, ‘Genet and Levinas: Genet’s model of Political Theatre’.

August 2006, University of Helsinki, Finland The Global v’s the Local , IFTR Annual Conference, ‘From Colonialism to Globalisation: The Screens’.

August 2006, University of Helsinki, Finland The Global v’s the Local , IFTR Annual Conference,  ‘Deconstructing the Whorehouse: Towards an Affective Heterotopia’.

June 2007, Leeds University, Performing Literatures, ‘Is there a text in this Performance?.

September, 2007, Lancaster University, Melancholic States Conference, ‘Against Spectrality: Space in The Blacks’.

November 2007, New York University, Event/Happening, The 13^th The Annual Performance Studies Conference, ‘Death in the City’.

January 2008, Strathyclyde University, Sensory Urbanism, ‘The Notebooks of Xavier Valery’.

May 2008, ‘To pick a Flower’, Territories Reimagined, Manchester Metropolitan University.

January 2009 – ‘Conversation with Lone Twin’, Performance and Philosophy Symposium, Aberystwyth University.

June 2009, ‘Belfast to Boston: Place in Astral Weeks’, Living Landscapes, AHRC Landscape and Environment Conference.

July 2009, ‘Barker, Genet and the Theatre of Death’, Howard Barker Symposium, Aberystwyth University.

April 2010, ‘Lone Twin and Listening’, Lone Twin and the Catastrophe Trilogy’, Symposium, Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

September 2010 – ‘Tensions of the Authentic and National Theatre Wales’, TAPRA, University of Glamorgan, Cardiff.

September, 2010 –  ‘National Theatre Wales’, Conference on Regional and National Theatre, University of Reading.

February 2011, ‘Auditing Myth’, Myth Today Symposium, Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

May 2011, ‘Conversation with Action Hero’, Relate and Participate Symposium, Aberystwyth University.

June 2012 – ‘Practising Location’, Performance Studies International 18, University of Leeds, Leeds.

 

Recent Creative Projects

January 2006, Mourning Walk, Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster University.

January 2007, Observing Nature Exhibit, Biology Atrium, Lancaster University.

Jan-April 2010 - Piece Now, Neil Callaghan and Simone Hancox, Aberystwyth Arts, Battersea Arts Centre, Arnolfini, Bristol.

June 2010 - The Paradox of the Writer, Stoke Newington International Airport.

 

Curation and Organisation

October 2003 – Genet in Performance International Symposium, University East Anglia.

2006-8- Curation of Reenchantment and Reclamation Talk Series.

May 2008  Principal Organizer for Three Day Workshop with Graeme Miller as part of Reenchantment and Reclamation: New Perceptions of Morecambe Bay Lecture Series, Lancaster University.

January 2009 – Performance and Philosophy, Making and Thinking, Aberystwyth University.

June 2009 -  Living Landscapes, AHRC Landscape and Environment Conference, Aberystwyth University.

April 2010 – Lone Twin and the Catastrophe Trilogy Symposium’ Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

February 2011 – Myth Today Symposium, Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

September 2012 – Performing Rituals/Rituels en Action, Aberystwyth University.

February 2012 (ongoing) – ‘Performing Ecology and Environment Lecture Series’ (co-organised and co-curated with Professor Deborah Dixon, IGES), Aberstwyth.

 

Select Reviews

Julia Dobson, Helene Cixous and the Theatre: The Scene of Writing, Journal of Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, 3:3, December 2002.

Steven T. Brown, Theatricalities of Power: The Cultural Politics of Noh, Journal of Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, 4:1, April 2003.

Alison Forsyth, Gadamar, History and the Classics: Fugard, Marowitz, Berkoff, and Harrison Rewrite the Theatre, Journal of Consciousness, Literature and the Arts,  4 :1, April 2003.

Franko B, Still Life, Live Art Magazine, December 2003.

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Cunnilingus in North Korea, Live Art Magazine, January 2004.

Audiology, a performance by The Pacitti Company, Live Art Magazine, April 2004.

Daniel Albright, Beckett and Aesthetics, Modern Drama, 47:1, 2004, 155-7.

David Bradby and Maria M. Delgado, eds., The Paris Jigsaw, New Theatre Quarterly, 20:2, 2004, 199.

David Bradby and Maria M. Delgado, eds.,The Paris Jigsaw, The Journal of Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, 5:1, 2004.

Michael Kobialka, This is My Body: Representational Practices in the Early Middle Ages, New Theatre Quarterly, 20:4, 2004, p. 394.

Edward Scheer, ed., Anton Artaud: A Critical Reader, New Theatre Quarterly, 2005.

Adrian Heathfield, ed., Live: Art and Performance, Dance Theatre Journal, 21: 1, 2005, 45-7.

Jens Hoffman and Joan Jonas, eds, Perform, Dance Theatre Journal, 21:3, 2006, 49-51.

Jen Harvie – Staging the UK, New Theatre Quarterly, 23:1, 2007, 91.

Michael Pearson: ‘In Comes I’: Performance, Memory and Landscape, New Theatre Quarterly, 23: 3,  2007, 287-8.

‘Mike Pearson: The Persians’, Planet Magazine, October 2010.

‘ John Deeney and Maggie Gale, The Routledge Drama Anthology and Sourcebook’, Modern Language Review, 107: 2, April 2012, pp. 301-3.

‘Caridad Svich, The Way of Water’, http://ashdenizen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/way-of-water-indie-theatre-carbon-light.html.

‘Edward Turk, French Theatre Today’, Theatre Research International (forthcoming, 2013)

‘Kimberly Jannarone, Artaud and His Doubles’, Theatre Research International (forthcoming, 2013).