Dr Lara Shalson

Biography

I am a member of the Performance Research Group at King’s and a member of the board of Performance Studies international (PSi), for which I am co-chair of the Emerging Scholars Committee.

Research Interests and PhD Supervision

My research is interdisciplinary both in its objects and methods of study. Focusing primarily on the period of the late 1950s to the present, I write about a range of art forms, including theatre, performance art, live art, film, photography, and conceptual art. I am interested in the relationships between these forms as well as in the languages we use to describe them, and much of my work is concerned with investigating how the discourses coming out of theatre, performance studies, art history, and related disciplines differently frame and understand these art practices. 

In addition, I am interested in how theories of performance can help us to understand the social world—from the performativity of everyday life to the staging of particular events including political protest actions. One thing that unites my research is a concern with the politics and ethics of the relations produced by works in particular contexts—whether the relations between audience and performer, viewer and artwork, or object and surrounding environment. This extends to an interest in the ethics of the critical relationship itself—a concern that I have pursued in different ways in articles on the status of judgment in Jacques Derrida’s “Force of Law” essay, and on the relationship between critics and artists in the Women’s One World Festivals of the early 1980s. I work on and with a range of theoretical discourses including performance theory, feminist theory, queer theory, psychoanalysis, and phenomenology.

I welcome inquiries from prospective PhD students interested in working on topics in theatre and performance studies and/or gender and sexuality studies. In particular, I welcome applications from students interested in:

• performance art and live art
• feminist and queer theory and performance
• inter-media practices and inquiry
• performance in the social world, including theories of performativity
• the ethics and/or politics of theatre and performance practices

For more details, please see my full research profile.Selected Publications

Teaching

I teach/have taught the following modules at King’s:

Undergraduate:

• Introducing Literary Theories
• Gender and Performance
• Art and Language
• Modern Theatre

Postgraduate:

• Imprints of Performance
• Performance Research Methods
• Theatre and Performance Theory (beginning 2011-2012)
• Theatre and Performance Research Methods (beginning 2011-2012)

Expertise and Public Engagement

Distinctions:

• The Chancellor’s Dissertation Year Fellowship, UC Berkeley (2007 - 2008)
• The Berkeley Fellowship (2002 - 2007) 

Grants:

• Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Research Grant, UC Berkeley (2005)
• Consortium for the Arts Curriculum Development Award, UC Berkeley (2005)
• International Center for Advanced Theater Studies Full Scholarship (2005)
• University Fellowship, Graduate Center, City University of New York (1999 - 2001)