Dr Sarah Blissett

Sarah Blissett (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and dramaturg working at the intersections between visual art and performance. She is lecturer in Drama at the University of Plymouth where her research explores how site-specific practices can engage with changing ocean ecologies at time of climate crisis. She is interested in embodied ways of working with intertidal environments and multispecies communities in performance with a focus on algae and seaweeds. She is the guest editor of an upcoming issue of CSPA Quarterly on ‘Intertidal Encounters’ (Sept 2023). Recent work includes: Marking Tidetime (2022-present) artistic research project and audio walk, River Rememberings performance at Modern Art Oxford gallery (2022), How Nature Builds, workshop series at MAO (2019, 2022), Kelp Curing, a workshop series in Lofoten, Norway as part of the Lofoten International Arts Festival inaugural ‘Kelp Congress’ (2019).

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students, particularly those with research projects exploring reparative social-ecological practices, site-specific performance, feminist performance or contemporary live art and performance.

Qualifications

2008. BA in English and Drama with Education Studies, University of Cambridge (2:1)

2009. MA in Advanced Theatre Practice, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Distinction)

2020. PhD in Performance Studies, University of Roehampton

Professional membership

ASTR (American Society of Theatre Research)

PSi (Performance Studies International)

TaPRA (Theatre and Performance Research Association)

IFTR (International Federation for Theatre Research)

Teaching interests

• Site-Specific Performance
• Theatre & Performance Ecology
• Dramaturgy & Theatre Criticism
• Feminist Performance
• Immersive & Multimedia Performance

Research interests

My research interests include site-specific practices and ways of working with nonhumans and environments in performance through somatic and embodied knowledge approaches. I am particularly interested in exploring the role that stories play in shaping our understandings of changing ecologies with a focus on watery entanglement and multispecies intertidal communities.