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Dr Carl Lavery

Senior Lecturer in Drama, Theatre and Performance
. Photograph of Dr Carl Lavery.

Contact

Email: cvl@aber.ac.uk
Phone: 01970 622835

Research

Lavery researches two main areas: landscape and environmental performance and contemporary French performance. In both, he tries to think about performance in terms of space, and to find alternative ways of writing about this relationship. He works closely with the artist and poet Lawrence Bradby, and has created a solo landscape performance called Mourning Walk. He has recently completed the first stages of a funded project, Observing Nature/Performing Ecology with the ecologist, Professor Richard Bardgett and digital artist Kirk Woolford. He is co-editor of Jean Genet: Performance and Politics (Palgrave, 2006), co-author of Sacred Theatres (Intellect, 2007) and Walking and Autobiography: Performance Writing (Intellect, 2007). He has published articles in Contemporary Theatre Review, Journal of European Studies, Research in Drama Education, New Theatre Quarterly, Studies in Theatre and Performance and Performance Research. His current research is focused on three projects: 'Re-enchantment and Reclamation: New Perceptions of Morecambe Bay Through Dance, Film and Sound', a collaborative project funded by the AHRC; Spaces of Revolution: The Politics of Jean Genet's Late Theatre, also funded by the AHRC; and Contemporary French Theatre and Performance, a co-edited book with Clare Finburgh. He is a regular reviewer for New Theatre Quarterly and Dance/Theatre Journal.

Lavery is currently supervising two PhD students. He welcomes proposals from postgraduate students interested in relating performance and performance-making to the following areas: landscape, ecology, environment, site, walking and everyday life. He is equally interested in supervising postgraduate students who want to write about contemporary French performance since the 1950s.

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.

Staff Publications

Books

  • Spaces of Revolution: The Politics of Jean Genet’s Late Theatre (manuscript with Manchester University Press)

Co-authored Books

  • Sacred Theatre, Ralph Yarrow, Franc Chamberlain, Carl Lavery& Bill Haney, Exeter: Intellect, 2007 (forthcoming).
  • Walking and Autobiography: Performance Writing, Dee Heddon, Carl Lavery & Phil Smith, ed. Roberta Mock, Exeter: Intellect, March 2009 (forthcoming).

Co-edited Book

  • Jean Genet: Performance and Politics, eds, Carl Lavery, Maria Shevtsova and Clare Finburgh, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
  • (with Clare Finburgh) Contemporary French Theatre and Performance (Palgrave Macmillan; forthcoming)
  • (with David Williams) A LoneTwin Workbook (forthcoming)

Chapters in Books

  • 'Reading The Blacks Through the 1956 Preface', Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
  • 'Genet and the Politics of Abjection' (with Paul Woodard), in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics.
  • 'A Graveyard in the City: Genet and Situationism', in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics.
  • 'Introduction', in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics.
  • 'Interview with Colin Chambers', in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics.
  • 'Interview with Terry Hands', in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics.
  • 'Interview with Joseph Strick', in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics.
  • 'Interview with Richard Schechner', in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics.
  • 'Interview with Cornerstone Theatre, in Jean Genet: Performance and Politics.
  • 'Performance Writing, Narrative and Walking', in Theatre and Philosophy, eds. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe and Dan Watt, Cambridge Scholars: 2007 (forthcoming)
  • 'Reading the Blacks Through the 1956 Preface', in Readings in Political Performance, eds, Susan Haedicke and Aviz Oz, Amsterdam:Rodopoi (forthcoming)
  • ‘Police on my Back’, in C. Svich ed., Censorship and Self-Censorship in Theatre and Performance (Manchester: Manchester University Press, forthcoming 2008/9)
  • Various articles republished in) N. Whybrow, ed., Performance and the Contemporary City: an Interdisciplinary Reader (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2008/9)

Articles in Journals and Web 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, 20:2, 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
  • Moving Through Space: Itinerant Performance and the Search for the Poetic Community' (with Lawrence Bradby), Site: Special Issue of Research in Drama Education, 2007
  • 'Situationism and Spectacle' (keywords), Performance Research: Lexicon, 11:3, January, 2007
  • ‘The Glocal’, Moving Worlds/Moving Words: a Journal of Transcultural Writing (forthcoming, 2009)
  • The Peregrinations of Xavier Valery, in ‘On Appearance’, Performance Research (forthcoming, 2009)

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 (forthcoming)

Organisational/Curation

  • 2002-3 - Theatre and Performance Seminars, University of East Anglia
  • 2003 - Genet and Performance: International Symposium, University of East Anglia
  • 2006 - Tim Etchells on Performance, Lancaster University
  • 2006- (with Matt Fenton)Practice Reflected : Middle, End, Beginning: adventures in narrative, Lancaster University, October, 2006
  • 2006- Reclamation and Reenchantment: New Perceptions of Morecambe Bay Lecture Series, Lancaster University

Recent 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, 15th Francophone Studies Conference: 'Performing Post-colonial Identity: Genet's Les Nègres and Fanon's Les Damnés de la terre'
  • December 2002, New York, 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, '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 11th Annual Performance Studies Conference, 'Uncomfortable in London: Sleepwalking in the Land of Ghosts'
  • June 2005, The University of Maryland, Washinton D.C, USA, 'Citizen Artists: Theatre, Culture and Community: IFTR Annual Conference, 'Genet's The Blacks: A Reading of an Unpublished Preface'
  • October 2005, Aberystwyth 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'
  • 'Deconstructing the Whorehouse: Towards an Affective Heterotopia'
  • August 2006, Lancaster University, International Conference on the Knowledge-Based Economy, 'Problems of Collaboration' (with Lawrence Bradby)
  • October 2006, Lancaster University, Practice Reflected: End, Middle, Beginning: Adventures in Narrative, 'Performance Writing, Narrative and Walking'.
  • October 2006, Cumbria Institute of the Arts' Centre for Landscape and Environmental Arts Research (CLEAR, Imagined Landscapes, Invited Speaker.
  • February 2007, Lancaster University, Nine Years of Lone Twin. Invited speaker
  • April 2007. Essex University, 'How to Write About Site-specific Performance', Department of English, Film and Drama Seminar Series. Invited Speaker