Generations and Feminist Temporalities in Contemporary Northern Irish Performance

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'Generations and Feminist Temporalities in Contemporary Northern Irish Performance' will examine how we narrate feminist histories in Northern Ireland (NI) though the context of contemporary performance. The study encompasses theatre, dance and performance art in NI from the last five years. The complexity of identity in NI is ripe for further examination through attention to gendered histories. The Fellowship will bring feminist histories into dialogue with performance histories in NI; a unique approach which will attest to the richness of NI's creative output, as well as expanding our understanding of the ways in which we tell feminist histories. The project considers: What are the implications for feminist and Northern Irish histories when these are transmitted through a generational model? This will initiate exploration of cross-generational and intergenerational experiences, non-linear temporalities, as well as feminist concepts of solidarity and intersectionality. Embodiment and affect will provide critical frameworks that broaden our understanding of these relationships and models.Through the Fellowship I will generate pioneering interdisciplinary research which will be made available to, and beyond, an academic audience. The research will be disseminated through key outputs: a monograph; media articles; a podcast series; and a public, creative workshop at the Ulster Museum. As research for the chapters progresses, I will share the key findings with a non-academic audience by publishing media articles. The monograph will be available as an Open Access publication and the podcast series will be freely available on the QUB website. The research will be shared with the international academic community through conference and working group participation, namely the International Federation for Theatre Research annual conference, as well as conferences in the UK and on the island of Ireland. I will build on my existing Practice-as-Research (PaR) project which examined the embodied experiences of different generations of women in NI, as well as their differing relationships to feminisms. The project also investigated working practices that address the tensions and solidarities of intergenerational relationships. The Fellowship will extend this research through address of: trauma, violence and cross-generational experiences; activism and intergenerational relations; embodiment and intersectionality; collage and non-linear models of feminist histories. I will combine the PaR data concerning lived experiences of gender in NI with the new research generated by the Fellowship (critical performance analysis) to amplify my innovative argument.The proposed monograph will address generational time through discussion of Darren Murphy's play X'ntigone (2022). Trauma, violence and cross-generational experiences will be investigated through analysis of two plays: Shedding of Skin by Vittoria Cafolla (2021) and Consumed by Karis Kelly (2022). I will examine intergenerational relations through discussion of feminist and queer activism in the North on a range of issues and will focus on artist-activists' use of performance, including the work of Array Collective and Gemma Hutton. Investigation of Oona Doherty's choreographic work for groups of women (the Sugar Army in Hard to be Soft: A Belfast Prayer and Lady Magma) offers the means of exploring the concepts of intersectionality and solidarity through affect and embodiment. Examination of the range of feminisms that circulate through Doherty's work will encompass analysis of magma as a movement language which is implicitly informed by the second wave concept of écriture feminine. Linear and generational models of history sow division and exclude non-mainstream experiences and narratives so the last chapter will examine non-linear models of telling feminist histories through address of experimental approaches such as collage by Oona Doherty and Array Collective's Emma Campbell.