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Research Cluster

Human Rights and the Humanities

Bringing together scholars and practitioners specialising in journalism, theatre-making, playwriting, filmmaking, film theory and literature, our research explores the role of the media and the arts in conflict and post-conflict settings around the world and in situations where disregard of human rights and statelessness are the result of political and legal actions supported by exclusionary ideological frameworks.

Working on topics such as conflict communication, testimony, freedom of expression, statelessness and the performance of protest, a focus on lived practices is central to our approach. We also bring the critical methodologies of the humanities to bear upon the aesthetics and ethics of human rights representations.

Our research is outward-facing and seeks to engage with different cultural institutions and civil society groups on human rights and social justice issues.

Our partnerships have included Amnesty International, iceandfire theatre company, Performing Conflict Network, Mercury Theatre, Ariadne women’s theatre collective, Ubumuntu Arts Festival, The Mosaic Rooms, Dah Teatar, Observatorio Migrantes del Caribe, Article 19 – MENA, and the National Syndicate for Tunisian Journalists.

Research strands

There are four major strands to our research within this cluster.

exploring the role of the media and arts in transitional justice, particularly art as a tool of therapy and reparation for atrocity survivors
empirical research into practices of journalism, theatre-making, and filmmaking, in contexts of crisis, conflict and political change in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region which challenges abstract theoretical models of Western journalism and Film Studies
reflecting on the experience of trauma in testimony through creative practice (playwriting, verbatim theatre and filmmaking) and critical studies of witnessing practices in literature and film
research into migration and border relations, exploring notions of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’ in the context of human rights.

Please contact our academics directly to discuss research supervision opportunities, or explore our research degrees and what to expect from a degree in the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies. You can also find out how to apply for postgraduate research at Essex, or use research finder if you are interested in searching for further research opportunities at Essex.

Informing education

The research carried out by our members informs education, and shapes courses and modules both in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies and East 15 Acting School.

Undergraduate modules include:

Theatre & Human Rights

MA modules include:

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La Frontera domínico haitiana: pasado y presente

In October 2017, on the 80th anniversary of the 1937 massacre of Haitian and Haitian-Dominicans in the Dominican borderland, Maria Cristina Fumagalli and Bridget Wooding, supported by ESRC/UoE and OBMICA, travelled to the border crossing of Elías Piña (DR)/Belladère (Haiti) where they organized a series of commemorative activities aimed at celebrating and promoting solidarity and harmony among the two peoples sharing the island of Hispaniola, at foregrounding the vibrant local/border culture, and at providing the opportunity to look at and rethink the future by reassessing the past. This video recounts what happened on that day.

Highlights of research

Research projects

Recent research projects funded by the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, AHRC Global Challenges Fund, and ESRC/University of Essex Impact Acceleration Fund include:

2019 - 2021 Creativity and Constraint: Contemporary Cinema in Iran and the Arab World, funded by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (Shohini Chaudhuri). In 2019, she organized a symposium on the topic in partnership with The Mosaic Rooms and Index on Censorship.
2019 - Present: Arab Media and Transitions to Democracy: Journalistic Practices in Communicating Conflicts in the Post Arab Uprisings, funded by British Academy Sustainable Development Programme (Fatima El Issawi)
2017 - Present: Theatre. Conflict. Change funded by the AHRC Global Challenges Fund (Elizabeth Kuti and Annecy Lax)
2018 - 2020: Thinking Home Communities (Sanja Bahun and Mary Mazzilli)
2016 - 2018: Reconceptualizing troubled border relations: promoting cross-border collaboration, cooperation and solidarity between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the wake of the denationalization crisis in Hispaniola (Maria Cristina Fumagalli)
2017: Human side of migration; Priority Seating (Mercury Theatre, 2017) was funded by the ESRC/University of Essex Impact Acceleration Fund (Mary Mazzilli). In this video, Mary talks about the research behind her play. You can also listen to her interview about her play on BBC Essex, or read the article 'Telling the human story behind immigration' for more information.

Publications

'On the Edge: Writing the Border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic'

Maria Cristina Fumagalli’s book On the Edge: Writing the Border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic (2015) was reissued as a paperback by Liverpool University Press in 2018.

‘To be creative is to exist’: rejecting resilience, enacting Sumud in the cultural resistance of ASHTAR theatre

Annecy Lax’s article, ‘To be creative is to exist’: rejecting resilience, enacting Sumud in the cultural resistance of ASHTAR theatre' was published in Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre And Performance in 2021.

‘Beyond good and evil? Popular songs, mathemes and bus rides (art and transition in the region of the former Yugoslavia)’

Sanja Bahun, ‘Beyond good and evil? Popular songs, mathemes and bus rides (art and transition in the region of the former Yugoslavia)’, Media, War & Conflict Vol. 13, no. 1 (2020): 70–87.

'The Arab Spring: Micro Dynamics of Revolt between Change and Continuity'

Fatima El Issawi and Francesco Cavatorta (Eds.). The Arab Spring: Micro Dynamics of Revolt between Change and Continuity. London: Gingko, 2020.

'Media, Accountability and Dissent in the Middle East and North Africa'

Fatima El Issawi and Jonathan Hill are editing a special issue on ‘Media, Accountability and Dissent in the Middle East and North Africa’ for The International Journal of Press Politics, expected in June 2021.

‘Alternative Public Spaces in Hybrid Media Environments: Dissent in High Uncertainty'

Fatima El Issawi, ‘Alternative Public Spaces in Hybrid Media Environments: Dissent in High Uncertainty’, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 2021 (published online).

‘“Telegenically dead Palestinians”: Cinema, News Media and Perception Management of the Gaza Conflicts’

Shohini Chaudhuri’s chapter, ‘“Telegenically dead Palestinians”: Cinema, News Media and Perception Management of the Gaza Conflicts’ appears in Global Humanitarianism and Media Culture, edited by Michael Lawrence and Rachel Tavernor, published by Manchester University Press in 2019.

Talks

Annecy Lax gave a keynote paper and practice session in November 2019 to Performance and Conflict II: LISTENING, PERFORMANCE, AND CONFLICT, A Practice-Based Research Symposium at Concordia University, Montreal.
Sanja Bahun gave a keynote on ‘Literature, Justice, Transition' in 2016.
Fatima El Issawi and Francesco Cavatorta, ‘The Unfinished Arab Spring Ten Years on: Where Are We Going?’, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University, January 2021.
Fatima El Issawi and Francesco Cavatorta, ‘10 years on the Arab revolts, the unfinished Arab Spring’, Centre Arabe de Recherches et d’Etudes Politiques, Paris, September 2020. Webinaire 13 : Un printemps arabe inachevé - Centre Arabe de Recherches et d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.
Shohini Chaudhuri gave a keynote paper, ‘Cinema of Constraints: Continuity and Change in Contemporary Cinema from and about the Arab World’ at the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA) Annual Conference, University of Stirling, January 2019.