Dr Liam Jarvis

Biography

I am a researcher-practitioner, teacher, writer and theatre director. At present, I am Director of the Centre for Theatre Research (CTR) and a Senior Lecturer in Theatre in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex. My research and teaching interests include postdigital, intermedial and interactive performance, virtual embodiment and immersion in contemporary performance, science-art interdisciplinarity and object-led theatre. I was co-convener of the Intermediality in Theatre and Performance Working Group at the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) from 2017-2021. In this role, I co-ordinated the research activities of the research group at conferences in Sao Paulo (2017), Belgrade (2018), Shanghai (2019) and Galway (online in 2021). I have co-edited publications that capture the cutting-edge research emerging from this prolific research network; most recently in 'Avatars, Activism and Postdigital Performance: Precarious Intermedial Identities' (2021), a collection of essays from the WG activities, which I have co-edited with Karen Savage (University of Lincoln) and ‘TechNO-fixes?: Performances within Ecological Emergencies’ (an Affiliated Issue of the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media (18.1), for which I am Guest Editor with Karen Savage. A new book series called 'Critical Shorts in Performance and Post-Internet Cultures' that I am co-editing with Karen Savage will be launched in 2024 with Bloomsbury Methuen. I am co-authoring the first book title in the series called 'Postdigital Performances of Care: Technology & Pandemic' (2023). In addition, I am a member of the Editorial Board for the Body, Space & Technology (BST) journal (2020-present) and the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital (2022-present). Prior to joining the LiFTS department, I trained as a theatre director at LAMDA, before working as an Assistant Director with companies such as Gecko and Theatre-Rites. In 2007, I co-founded Analogue, an award-winning independent theatre company with whom I created devised work that toured the UK/internationally. Prior to my appointment at Essex, I was a Visiting Lecturer and Teaching Fellow in Contemporary Theatre-making at Royal Holloway University from 2004-2015, and a regular visiting speaker at institutions such as LAMDA and Mountview Academy. I have a long-standing interest in supporting pedagogical developments across the sector, having co-created and led Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses for Drama teachers and Masterclasses for secondary school students as part of the National Theatre's Discover programme on devising practice in collaboration with Al Nedjari (Gecko, War Horse). In 2021, I was awarded a Times Higher Education's 'Most Innovative Teacher of the Year' Award (sponsored by Advance HE). My research journey emerged through my practice; in particular, my work with Analogue and interdisciplinary collaborations with partners in adjacent fields such as psychology, histopathology and neuroscience. My creative investigations with my company formed a significant part of my AHRC funded PhD research entitled 'Feeling with Someone Else’s Body: Self-deception and the Paradox of Immersive Performance'; a qualitative project that examined the intersections between technologized immersive performance practices and recent neuroscientific studies in embodiment and body-ownership. This work drew me to both artistic and scientific experimentation with body illusions that displace sensations and elicit eccentric forms of perception in participants as an expression of an ontological reach towards different kinds of otherness beyond the body one owns; for example, the empathy activism of temporarily inhabiting the first-person virtual bodies of refugees, traumatic brain injury patients or non-human others using VR. These are all areas of investigation that are featured in my book Immersive Embodiment: Theatres of Mislocalization (2019). I have in-depth industry knowledge and expertise as a member of the Board of Management for Theatre-Rites (from 2013-present), an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation (NPO). As a practitioner, I have created practice research projects through a variety of producing models from artistic residencies to research fellowships. I have also acted as an embedded researcher, observing the processes/performer training of other world-leading practitioners; most recently the object-led training methods of puppet director Sue Buckmaster have been captured and theorized in a new co-authored book, Theatre Rites: Animating Puppets, Objects and Sites that coincided with Theatre-Rites's 25th Anniversary celebrations as a company in 2021.

Qualifications

• Ph.D (Royal Holloway)

• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) AdvanceHE,

• M.Res (Royal Holloway)

• PGdip in Directing (LAMDA)

• BA Hons. (Royal Holloway)

Appointments

University of Essex

• Director, Centre for Theatre Research, Literature, Film and Theatre Studies (LiFTS), University of Essex (16/1/2022 - present)

• Co-director, Centre for Theatre Research (CTR), Literature, Film and Theatre Studies (LiFTS), University of Essex (1/9/2019 - 14/1/2022)

• Graduate Director, Literature, Film and Theatre Studies (LiFTS), University of Essex (1/9/2018 - 21/7/2020)

• Senior Lecturer, Literature, Film and Theatre Studies (LiFTS), University of Essex (1/9/2018 - present)