Dr Catherine Silverstone, BA, MA (Waikato) DPhil (Sussex)
Senior Lecturer in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, and Director of Graduate Studies

email: c.silverstone@qmul.ac.uk

Catherine Silverstone's research is concerned with the cultural politics of contemporary performance, especially in relation to Shakespeare, sexuality and trauma. Her monograph, Shakespeare, Trauma and Contemporary Performance (Routledge, 2011) explores relationships between performances of Shakespeare and various traumatic events and histories including apartheid, colonisation, homophobia and war. She has also published articles on theatrical reconstruction, cross-dressing, post-apartheid performance, Shakespeare in Aotearoa New Zealand, festival performance, and sexuality and club performance. She is co-editor with Sarah Annes Brown of Tragedy in Transition (Blackwell, 2007). Catherine has also reviewed books for The Review of English Studies, Contemporary Theatre Review and Early Theatre and performance for Shakespeare.

Catherine is a member of the AHRC's Peer Review College.

Current Projects:

Catherine is currently working on queer Shakespeare films and is editing a special issue of Performance Research – ‘On Affirmation’ – with Fintan Walsh.

Research interests:

Early modern drama in performance on stage and screen, especially in relation to gender, sexual and racial politics and Shakespeare cultural politics;
Sexuality, especially in relation to queer performance practices;
Trauma studies and its relation to performance practice and criticism;
Tragedy and the performance of death;
Archives, performance histories and historiography.

Postgraduate supervision:

Catherine is currently supervising projects on lesbian performance, black queer theatre, new writing at the Globe and the RSC, and anti-social performance and queerness.

Catherine has supervised the following PhD projects to completion:

Brian Lobel, ‘Playing the Cancer Card: Illness, Spectatorship and Performance’ (co-supervised with Lois Weaver).
Cecilia Sosa, ‘Performance, Kinship and Archives: Queering Acts of Mourning in the Aftermath of Argentina’s 1976-1983 Dictatorship’ (co-supervised with Maria Delgado).

Catherine welcomes applications from prospective research students, especially those interested in working on Shakespeare and early modern drama in performance; queer performance practices; and trauma studies.

Publications:

Selected Publications:

‘Duckie’s Gay Shame: Critiquing Pride and Selling Shame in Club Performance’, Contemporary Theatre Review, 22 (2012), 62-78 doi:10.1080/10486801.2011.645234

Shakespeare, Trauma and Contemporary Performance (New York: Routledge, 2011)

‘Fatal Attraction: Desire, Anatomy and Death in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore’, in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore: A Critical Guide, ed. L. Hopkins (London: Continuum, 2010), pp. 77-93

‘“Honour the real thing”: Shakespeare, Trauma and Titus Andronicus in South Africa’, Shakespeare Survey, ed. P. Holland, 62 (2009), 46-57

with S. Brown, eds, Tragedy in Transition (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007)

‘Speaking Maori Shakespeare: The Maori Merchant of Venice and the Legacy of Colonisation’, in Screening Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century, ed. M. T. Burnett and R. Wray (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), pp. 127-145

‘Shakespeare Live: Reproducing Shakespeare at the 'New' Globe Theatre’, Textual Practice, 19 (2005), 31-50 doi:10.1080/0950236042000329636

‘Othello's Travels in New Zealand: Shakespeare, Race and National Identity’, in Remaking Shakespeare: Performance Across Media, Genres and Cultures, ed. P. Aebischer, E. J. Esche, N. Wheale (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003), pp. 74-92

Undergraduate teaching:

In the current academic year, Catherine contributes to undergraduate teaching on:

Dr Catherine Silverstone, BA, MA (Waikato) DPhil (Sussex) Senior Lecturer in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, and Director of Graduate Studies