Dr Annecy Lax

Biography

My research interests are in applied theatre, performing testimony, trauma in performance, the body performing protest and representations of ethics. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was Co-I on a successful AHRC grant to drive a new transformative agenda for mental health and suicide prevention in Essex, delivering a series of arts-based interventions for stakeholders and service-users. PreviouslyI was Co-I on a successful AHRC GCRF bid to create a residency and practice-exchange forum with female theatre-makers in conflict and post-conflict zones. I am also working on drawing together philosophical, cultural and socio-legal definitions of dignity in dialogue with performance work around displacement, diaspora and disfigurement, particularly in relation to performance art, live art and other non-drama based performance actions. I have received University awards for my teaching practice, and recognition for my research innovation and impact, winning the Faculty of Humanities, Research Champion Award in 2019, and as Supervisor of the Year for the Faculty of Humanities in 2020. Following on from an AHRC GCRF funded residency, I am currently working on research outputs with six global partners researching women theatre-makers who use their practice to promote social justice dialogue in conflict and post-conflict zones. My doctoral thesis, ‘Conscience and Consciousness: British Theatre and Human Rights’, explores applied and political theatre companies which address human rights abuses and rights capacity-building through performance. My research uses critical theory and performance philosophy to examine a number of contemporary companies and contextualise these case-studies against the problematics of defining human rights, the ethics and aesthetics of staging factual material, and the performativity of human rights protest and resistance. I offer PhD supervision in research connected to applied theatre and political theatre, currently working with students looking at questions of consent, chronic pain, autism and FGC/M in their theatre making practices. I mostly supervise practice research projects, working with students to mount festivals, deliver community arts programmes, drama in educational settings and to work with organisations as writers in residence. I also supervise theatre artists making new work, particularly where questions of autobiography are involved. I continue to work as a playwright and creative producer with ice&fire theatre, including a recent ACE funded installation piece on the UK’s involvement in the arms trade, and via a long-standing partnership with Amnesty International to develop a succession of performance provocations and new short films.

Appointments

University of Essex

• Dean of Partnerships (Education), Office of the Vice-Chancellor, University of Essex (1/10/2021 - present)

• Deputy Dean Postgraduate Research Education, University of Essex (2/9/2019 - 4/10/2021)

• Director of Impact, Literature Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex (1/1/2019 - 30/9/2019)

• Director of Employability and Development, Literature, Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex (1/10/2018 - 30/9/2019)

• MA Director, Literature Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex (1/10/2016 - 1/10/2018)