Dr Caoimhe Mader McGuinness
- Kingston School of Art
- Department of Performing Arts
- School of Arts
- Penrhyn Road
Senior Lecturer in Drama
About
I am a senior lecturer and Course Leader of the BA Drama at Kingston. I have also taught on the Humanities Foundation and MA in English, as well as across London at Birkbeck, Queen Mary, Goldsmiths and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. My teaching specialisms are grounded in critical and historical considerations of drama, theatre and performance and how to activate these through writing and performance. Specific topics explored in my classes are empire, gender, sexuality and disability as they are treated through performance and how this can make us think in turn about broader social, economic and political contexts.
My research and publications look at the politics of spectatorship, criticism and institutions of contemporary culture, theatre and live art through a Marxist, feminist, queer and post-colonial lens. I broadly focus on the specific histories of Western imperialism and its afterlives as these apply to cultural production and reception in contemporary Britain and France in their relationships to the state in particular. Further interests are protest, social reproduction in feminist performance, the 1951 Festival of Britain and Marxist approaches to theatre and performance.
My monograph, which compares the 1951 Festival of Britain and 2022's Unboxed Festival in how these speak to similarities and differences in conceptions of the British state, empire and identity, is due out in October 2025. I am also developing a collaborative project on 'Cartoon Theatre' with Dr Maggie Gray and a personal research project on French colonial aphasia and its cultural manifestations in a historical and contemporary global context.
- Course Leader Drama
- Joint Research Officer: Awards for the Theatre and Performance Research Association
- Joint Working Group Convenor 'Performance Economies' International Federation for Theatre Research:
- London Theatre Seminar Organising Committee
- Editorial Board of Studies in Theatre and Performance
Qualifications
- PhD in Drama, Queen Mary University of London 2017
- MA in Theatre and Performance, Queen Mary University of London 2010
- BA in Drama and Theatre Arts, Goldsmiths College University of London 2009
- Baccalauréat , Lycée Expérimental de St Nazaire 2000
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)