Professor Deirdre Heddon
- James Arnott Chair in Drama (Theatre, Film & Television Studies)
- Interim Dean of Learning and Teaching (Arts & Humanities Senior Management)
telephone:
01413303810
email:
Deirdre.Heddon@glasgow.ac.uk
pronouns:
She/her/hers
Room 329 Gilmorehill Halls, Theatre Studies, Gilmorehill Halls, Glasgow G12 8QQ
Biography
I received my doctoral degree in Theatre Studies from the University of Glasgow in 1999.
From 1998-2005 I was a Lecturer in Drama at the University of Exeter.
I returned to Glasgow in 2005, was promoted to Professor in 2012, and was appointed to the James Arnott Chair in Drama in 2015. The Chair of Drama was founded in 1972 and renamed in 1996 in memory of its first incumbent, James Fullarton Arnott (1914-1982). Arnott founded the Department of Drama at the University of Glasgow in 1966.
I was Dean of Graduate Studies for the College of Arts from 2010-2013 and from 2014-2020 was founding Dean/Director of the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities/AHRC DTP Scotland. I was also Deputy Head of College of Arts from 2015-2020.
I am a member of REF 2021 Sub-panel UoA 33: Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies.
Research interests
My doctoral research focused on feminism and live art and my commitment to contemporary performance and theatre practices persists. Significant publications include Devising Performance: A Critical History (Palgrave Macmillan 2005), co-authored with Jane Milling, Autobiography and Performance (Palgrave Macmillan 2008), The National Review of Live Art 1979 - 2010: A Personal History - essays, anecdotes, drawings and images (New Moves International 2010), Histories and Practices of Live Art, co-edited with Jennie Klein (Palgrave Macmillan 2012) and It’s All Allowed: The Performances of Adrian Howells, co-edited with Dominic Johnson (Intellect and LADA 2016).
Another enduring interest has been walking aesthetics, with the publication of numerous articles alongside practice-based research (see, for example 40 Walks, and Walking, Writing and Performance: Autobiographical Texts, ed. Roberta Mock (Intellect Books 2009). My creative research project, The Walking Library, a collaboration with Dr Misha Myers (Deakin University), was initiated in 2012. We have curated numerous commissioned editions of The Walking Library for different organisations, including Sideways Festival (Belgium), Glasgow Life, and The National Forest Company.
I am co-editor, with Professor Sally Mackey (Royal Central School of Speech & Drama) of an international series, Performing Landscapes (Palgrave Macmillan). Books published include Performing Mountains, Performing Ruins, and Performing Ice. I am currently working on the monograph, Performing Forests. If you have a proposal for this series, please do get in touch.
Grants
- 2021: AHRC Covid19 Rapid Response £356,760
- 2019: AHRC NPIF Fellowships £220,000
- 2019: AHRC DTP2 Scotland £17,000,000
- 2019: SFC SGSAH £1,000,200
- 2018: AHRC NPIF Fellowships £220,000
- 2018: AHRC Innovative Placements £90,000
- 2018: AHRC AI Studentships £200,000
- 2018: Creative Scotland (CI) £20,000
- 2017: AHRC Creative Economies Fellowships £250,000
- 2017: AHRC NPIF Studentships, £990,000
- 2015: AHRC Policy Development £28,000
- 2015: Creative Scotland (PI) £13,800
- 2015: Arches, NTS, BAC, STR, LADA £7,400
- 2014: Scottish Funding Council (PI) £1,800,800
- 2014: AHRC Connected Communities Showcase (CI), £20,000
- 2014: PI, AHRC, Being Human Festival, £1,500
- 2014: AHRC DTP Scotland (PI) £14,200,000
- 2012: AHRC Walking Interconnections (CI) £31,744
- 2012: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award £54,504
- 2012: AHRC Skills Development £59,200
- 2012: AHRC Skills Development £40,000
- 2012: Carnegie £1620
- 2008-09: British Academy Small Grants £2474
- 2007-10: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award £50,000
- 2006-09: AHRC Creative Fellowship (Adrian Howells) £170,266
- 2005/6: AHRC Research Leave Scheme £14,000
Supervision
I welcome PhD proposals, including practice research, in the following areas:
- Autobiographical and documentary forms of performance
- Live and performance art
- Ecological/environmental/site responsive performance
- Political performance
- Walking work
- Delaney, Lori
Performing Breast Cancer Stories: Disrupting Narratives and Constructing Selves - Hassall, Lee
More Than a Passing Pleasure: Performing Transmatic Landscapes in Dorothy Wordsworth’s 1803 Tour Of Scotland.
Past supervisions
- Harry Wilson, 'Roland Barthes, Theatre and Photography'.
- Leila Riszko, 'Breaching Bodily Boundaries'.
- Sarah Hopfinger, 'Performance (in) ecology: A practice-based approach’
- Cara Berger, ‘Lacanian Feminist Theory in Relation to Postdramatic Performance Practice'
- Lucy Amsden, ‘The Teacher and the Clown – the Pedagogy of Philippe Gaulier’
- Clare Louise Duffy, 'Practice as Research: Writing a Queer Aesthetic'
- David Overend, 'Underneath the Arches: Developing a relational performance aesthetic in response to a specific cultural site'
- Laura Bissell, 'The Posthuman Body in Performance’
Teaching
I teach across levels and contribute to several courses. Teaching has included:
- Autobiography and Performance (Hons)
- Documentary Theatre (Hons)
- Reading the Stage (Level 1)
- Theatre and Society (Level 1)
- Honours Dissertations
- Independent Research Practice (Masters)
- Masters Dissertations
Additional information
I have held a number of senior management positions over the past decade, including Dean of Graduate Studies and Deputy Head of the College of Arts. She was also the founding Director of the Scottish Graduate School for the Arts & Humanities (SGSAH), the first and only such national graduate school in the world. The SGSAH, founded in 2014, is co-funded by the Scottish Funding Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. A membership organisation, it serves 16 HEIs across Scotland and works in partnership with more than 100 organisations across all sectors. SGSAH also manages the AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership which supports doctoral funding across Scotland.
External positions
- REF 2021 Sub-panel UoA33
- AHRC Peer Review College
- Editorial Board Member of RiDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance (Routledge); Advisory Board, Contemporary Theatre Review (Routledge)
- Board of Directors, conFAB
- Board of Directors, Take Me Somewhere Festival
- Board of Directors, Scottish Youth Theatre
Awards
It’s All Allowed: The Performances of Adrian Howells, co-edited with Dominic Johnson, won the 2018 TaPRA Research Prize for Editing (Essay Collections and Special Issues).