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Dr Heike Roms

Senior Lecturer in Performance Studies
MA (Hamburg), PGCTHE (Wales), PhD (Wales), FHEA, FRSA Photograph of Dr Heike Roms.

Contact

Email: hhp@aber.ac.uk
Phone: 01970 621911
Fax: 01970 622831
Personal Web Site:http://www.performance-wales.org/

Responsibilities

Currently on research leave (Academic Year 2010-11) to complete the AHRC-funded research project, “‘It was forty years ago today’- Locating the early history of performance art in Wales 1965–1979”.

http://www.performance–wales.org
http://www.ahrc.ac.uk

Teaching Areas

Contemporary Performance; Performance and Documentation; Performance Writing

Additional Interests

Additional Interests

I am a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Daimler-Benz-Foundation.

I am currently external examiner for the BA (Hons) Modern Drama at Brunel University and for the BA (Hons) in Performance, Event, Context at Leeds Metropolitan University. I have examined PhDs for Queen Mary University of London and the University of the West of England and an MPhil for the University of Glasgow.

I have reviewed book proposals and journal papers for Routledge Taylor & Francis; Palgrave Macmillan; Contemporary Theatre Review; Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance and other publications.

I have taught guest sessions at, among others, Royal Holloway University of London, Frankfurt University and Theatre Academy Helsinki.

PhD supervision

I am currently supervising four PhD students on projects ranging from ‘The Journey as aesthetic practice in contemporary performance’, to ‘Notation of physical theatre in live and mediated environments’, ‘The Role of the Lecture Performance in Contemporary Performance Practice and Research’ and ‘Listening in the land of song (place, voice and listening in bi-lingual countries)’. Three of these students are in receipt of AHRC doctoral awards, and one student is supported by an Aberystwyth University APRS scholarship.
I have supervised PhD students to successful completion with projects in the areas of autobiography and performance and digital performance.

I welcome PhD applications in all areas of my research interests: performance art; performance historiography; performance, archiving and documentation; disciplinary histories and genealogies of performance studies; performance, landscape and environment

External Examining

  • 2003-2008 Dartington College of Arts
  • External Examiner for the BA Theatre, MA Devised Theatre, MA Performance and Cultural Location in Contemporary Europe (PCLCE)

Editorial Boards

  • since 1995    Editorial Board (Contributing/ Consulting Editor) Performance Research
  • since 2005    International Editorial Board Inter Magazine for Action Art (Canada)
  • since 2005    International Editorial Board Frakcija Magazine (Croatia)
  • 2002-2006   Editorial and Management Board (Theatre Editor) New Welsh Review (2005/6 Vice-Chair)

Management Boards

  • Since 2008    Internetional Advisory Board, MA Degree Programme Live Art & Performance Studies, Theatre Academy Helsinki /Finland
  • Since 2008    Board, Blaengar Artists-led organisation for contemporary inter-disciplinary art in Mid Wales
  • Since 2008    Board, Culture Colony / Y Wladfa Newydd
  • Since 2007    Board of Honour, International Centre for Performance Studies, Tangier, Morocco
  • 2005-2008    Board of Directors, Mes: a Performance Collective (Marc Rees, Eddie Ladd, Sean Tuan John) (Wales)
  • since 2004     Initiator, Traws: Inter-University Research Group for Performance in Wales
  • 2001-2004    Board of Directors PSi Performance Studies international – a worldwide membership association for artists and scholars working in the field of performance; Chair Conference Committee and Conference Liaison
  • 2003-2004   Chair, English Jury Welsh Book of the Year Award 2004
  • since 2002    Board of Directors (Secretary), trace Installaction Artspace Gallery Cardiff
  • since 2001    Founding Member and Chair, Second Wednesday Group for artists and critics with an interest in performance in Wales

Membership in Professional Organisations

  • Since 2008    Oral History Society
  • Since 1998    PSi Performance Studies international  (2001-04 Board of Directors)
  • Since 2002    FIRT International Federation of Theatre Research
  • Since 2006    TAPRA (Theatre and Performance Research Association UK)

Research Grants/Awards (as Principal Investigator)

  • AHRC Research Grant (Standard)
    Project: “’It was forty years ago today…’: Locating the Early History of Performance Art in Wales 1965-1979” Value: £165,779; Start Date: 01/04/2009 – End Date: 31/03/2011
  • Sir David Hughes Parry Award
    Project: “Aberystwyth 1968: Recovering and Reconstructing the Avant-garde in Wales”; Value: £745; Start Date: 01/08/2008 – End Date: 31/12/2008
  • University of Wales, Aberystwyth Research Fund
    Project: “What’s Welsh for Performance? Beth yw ‘performance’ yn Gymraeg?” – Archival; Value: £850; Start Date: Start Date: 01/07/2007 – End Date: 30/06/2008
  • Sir David Hughes Parry Award
    Project: “What’s Welsh for Performance? Beth yw ‘performance’ yn Gymraeg?” – Database construction; Value: £800; Start Date: Start Date: 01/09/2006 – End Date: 31/05/2007
  • Arts Council of Wales / National Lottery grant
    Project: “An Oral History of Performance Art in Wales” ; Value: £14,000; Start Date: 01/10/2006 – End Date: 30/09/2008
  • British Academy Doctoral Scholarship (1996-1998)
  • Evangelische Studienstiftung Villigst Doctoral Scholarship, Germany (1996-1998)
  • Gottlieb Daimler-und-Karl Benz-Stiftung Resarch Scholarship, Germany (1995-1996)

Research

I am currently completing an AHRC-funded research project, “‘It was forty years ago today…’ - Locating the early history of performance art in Wales 1965-1979”. The project charts the manner in which performance art (as an artistic movement of international reach) emerged and developed within a specific cultural context.
www.performance-wales.org

I was co-director of the AHRC Landscape and Environment programme ‘Living Landscapes’ conference, Aberystwyth University, 2009. http://www.landscape.ac.uk/2009conference.html
And I served as a member of the Steering Group for the AHRC-funded Network and Workshop, ‘Living in a Material Word: A cross-disciplinary enquiry into the performativity of emptiness – A series of site-based workshops and symposia’.

My research interests include:

  • Histories of performance art (especially in Wales and the UK generally)
  • Performance, archiving, documentation and historiography
  • Disciplinary histories and genealogies of performance studies
  • Teaching the avant-garde – Performance’s pedagogical histories
  • Performance and ecology; performance, landscape and environment

Biography

I joined the Department in 2005, after three years as a Lecturer in Theatre and Media Drama at Glamorgan University. I received my PhD in 2001 from the University of Wales Aberystwyth, following a Masters (Magistra Artium) in Literature, German Philology and Musicology from Hamburg University. Between 1985 and 1995 I worked for various theatre organisations in Germany, as dramaturg, production manager and press and publicity manager, for organisations such as the Kampnagelfabrik Hamburg, the International Sommertheater Festival Hamburg and the Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen.

Staff Links

What’s Welsh for Performance? Beth yw ‘performance’ yn Gymraeg?

Living Landscapes – An International Conference on Performance, Landscape and Environment

Trace Installaction Artspace Cardiff

Staff Publications

Selection of Publications since 2006 – a full list of earlier publications can be sent on request

Edited Volumes

Heike Roms, Mike Pearson and Stephen Daniels (eds) (2010) Fieldworks, London: Taylor and Francis (Performance Research 15:4).


Heike Roms, Jon McKenzie and C.W.W.L. Wee (eds) (2010) Contesting Performance: Emerging Sites of Research, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.


Heike Roms, Patrick Primavesi and Karoline Gritzner (eds) (2009) On Dramaturgy, London: Taylor and Francis (Performance Research 14:3).


Heike Roms (2008) What’s Welsh for Performance? - An Oral History of Performance Art in Wales (Volume 1), Cardiff: trace: Samizdat Press.

 

Book Contributions

Heike Roms (2010) ‘Remembering Performance – Performing Memory: An Oral History of Performance Art in Wales’, in Nicole Leclercq, Laurent Rossion and Alan R. Jones (eds) Capter l’essence du spectacle - Capturing the Essence of Performance, Proceedings of the Congrès de Glasgow SIBMAS Glasgow Congress 2008, Brussels: Peter Lang, pp. 209–220.


Heike Roms (2010) ‘The Lure of the Local, the Seduction of the Global: Locating Intermediality in Eddie Ladd’s Scarface*, in: Melissa Sihra and Pirkko Koski (eds) The Local Meets The Global In Performance, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.65–80.


Heike Roms (2010) ‘The Practice Turn: Performance and the British Academy’, in Heike Roms, Jon McKenzie and C.W.W.L. Wee (eds) Contesting Performance: Emerging Sites of Research, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 51–70.


Heike Roms, Jon McKenzie, C.J.W.-L. Wee (2010) ‘Contesting Performance in an Age of Globalization’, in Heike Roms, Jon McKenzie and C.W.W.L. Wee (eds) Contesting Performance: Emerging Sites of Research, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1–22.


Heike Roms (2008) ‘What Substance is Substance? – André Stitt’s Material Performances’, in André Stitt, Substance: Residues, Drawings & Partial Objects 1976–2008, Exeter: Spacex, pp. 12–19.


Heike Roms (2007) ‘Staging an Urban Nation: Place and Identity in Contemporary Welsh Theatre’, in Nadine Holdsworth and Mary Luckhurst (eds) Concise Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Drama, Oxford: Blackwells; pp.107–124. (ISBN 978-1-4051-3053-0)


Heike Roms (2006) ‘Eye and Ear, Foot and Mouth: Mapping Performance in three journeys and one withdrawal’, in: Judie Christie, Richard Gough and Daniel Watt (eds) A Performance Cosmology: Testimony from the Future, Evidence of the Past, London: Routledge; pp. 10–14. (ISBN 978-0-415-37258-9)


Heike Roms (2006) ‘Footnotes: Four walks in the company of Simon Whitehead’, in Simon Whitehead (ed.) Walking to Work, Abercych: Gwaith Cerdded/ Shoeless 2006, pp. 4–5 (ISBN: 0-9554020-0-X)


Heike Roms (2006) ‘Encountering Memory – Acco Theatre Center’s Arbeit macht frei MiToitland Europa’, in Joe Kelleher and Nicholas Ridout (eds) Contemporary Theatres in Europe – Encounters, Locations, Practices, London: Routledge, pp. 47–60. (ISBN 0-415-32940-X)


Heike Roms (2006) ‘From map to Trace: Situating performance in Wales’, in André Stitt (ed.) trace installaction artspace – 00-05, Bridgend: Seren, pp. 14-36. (ISBN 1-85411-408-5)


Journal contributions

Heike Roms (2010) ‘Das Ereignis als Evidenz, die Evidenz als Ereignis: Zur Geschichtsschreibung der Performance Art’, MAP – media | archive | performance e-journal 2 (‘Entscheidung und Augenschein’), www.perfomap.de (German version) ISSN 2191-0901 http://perfomap.de/current/gesch/ereignis-und-evidenz-


Heike Roms (2010) ‘Eventful Evidence: Historicizing Performance Art’, MAP – media | archive | performance e-journal 2 (Entscheidung und Augenschein), www.perfomap.de (English version-reprint) http://perfomap.de/current/gesch/eventful-evidence-1


Heike Roms (2008) ‘Eventful Evidence: Historicizing Performance Art’, Maska. 117–118 (Issue: History – Experience – Archive) (Autumn 2008), pp. 69–77. (published in English and Slovene as 'Dodokovni dokazi / Dogodkovno dokazovanje: Zgodoviniti performans'; translator: Barbara Hribar)


Heike Roms (2008) ‘What’s Welsh for Performance? Constructing an Archive of Performance Art in Wales’, Cyfrwng Media Wales Journal 5: 54–72. ISSN 1742-9234


Heike Roms (2007) ‘The “Performed Essay” as a mode of assessment’, Practice which works: a snapshot of assessment practice in Wales, The Higher Education Academy, accessible at: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/ourwork/nations/wales/01_aberystwyth_a_performed_essay_as_assessment.doc

Reviews and non-scholarly publications

Roms, Heike (2009) ‘Interview with John Cale’, Dyddiau Du/ Dark Days – Wales at the Venice Biennale, Cardiff: Wales at Venice Biennale/ Arts Council of Wales, with the support of the Welsh Assembly Government.


Roms, Heike (2008) ‘What Substance is Substance? – André Stitt’s Material Performances, in André Stitt, Substance: Residues, Drawings & Partial Objects 1976–2008, Exeter: Spacex, pp. 12–19.


Roms, Heike (2008) ‘Performance Drawing’, WelshArtNow 1 (Oct-Dec 2008), pp. 24-28.


Roms, Heike (2007), various contributions to Marijke Hoogenboom and Alexander Karschnia (eds) Na(ar) Het Theater – After Theatre? Supplements to the International Conference on Postdramatic Theatre, Amsterdam: Amsterdam School of the Arts/ Art Practice and Development Research Group.


Roms, Heike (2007) ‘Performance Archives Performance’, in Flashes from the Archives of Oblivion: Stuart Brisley, Ian Hinchliffe, Alastair MacLennan, Tatsumi Orimoto, exhibition catalogue, Cardiff: Chapter, pp. 7–15.


Roms, Heike (2007) 'Remembering Performance - Heike Roms in conversation with Ivor Davies'. Platfform (Contemporary performance practice in Wales) tri/3 (August 2007): 13-17.

Roms, Heike (2007) 'Performance and Protest'. New Welsh Review 76 (Summer 2007): 16-26.

Publications in Electronic Media

Heike Roms (2007) ‘What’s Welsh for Performance – Database’, [searchable online Archival Project database], supported by Dept. Theatre, Film and Television Studies, What’s Welsh for Performance? website, www.performance-wales.org/english/archive


Heike Roms (2007 cont.) ‘What’s Welsh for Performance? Beth yw ‘performance’ yn Gymraeg?’ – website and blog, supported by Dept. Theatre, Film and Television Studies, www.performance-wales.org/english/archive

Exhibitions & Performances

Aberystwyth in Flux 1968-2008 (2008)
[Principal Investigator: Concept, Research, Direction, Organisation]
Restaging the FLUXCONCERT BY AND FOR FLUXUS 1968;
funded by Sir David Hughes Parry Awards 2008 and presented at the Castle Theatre Aberystwyth 29.11.08.
[documented on Culture Colony – Y Wladfa Newydd website: http://www.culturecolony.com]

Mapping Performance Art in Cardiff (2008)
[Principal Investigator: Concept, Research, Direction, Organisation]
An installation devoted to locating and mapping performance art memories in Cardiff. Commissioned by Chapter Arts Centre and presented at Experimentica 2008, 19.10.08

Trace Dis:placed (2008)
[Co-Investigator: co-conceived Concept, Performance, Documentation]
A project exploring live archiving by the Trace collective (André Stitt, Beth Greenhalgh, Lee Hassall, Phil Babot) and Heike Roms. Guest: Roddy Hunter.
Presented at the National Review of Live Art, Tramway Glasgow 6-9 Feb 2008
Reviewed in The Scotsman and Art Monthly.

An Oral History of Performance in Wales – Hanes Llafar Celfyddyd Perfformio yng Nghymru (2006-2008)
[Principal Investigator: Concept, Research, Direction, Organisation]
A two-year series of events devoted to key artists who have shaped the development of performance art in Wales since 1968. Public conversations with Ivor Davies, Roland Miller, Shirley Cameron, Anthony Howell and others. Cardiff School of Art and Design and Aberystwyth University.
Funded by Arts Council of Wales/ National Lottery Fund.

Seminar & Conference Papers

For a list of recent seminar and conference papers in relation to my current research project please visit:

http://www.performance-wales.org/english/events/lectures.htm