Dr Harriet Curtis

My research engages with the history, politics, and aesthetics of contemporary art, performance, and visual culture, focusing particularly on queer, feminist, and activist art practices.

I have published and presented in these areas, including articles on performance documentation and archives (Platform, 2014), feminist performance practices (n.paradoxa, 2014), and the body in performance (Performance Research, 2015, 2017). In 2017 I co-edited the first book on the work of interdisciplinary artist Kira O’Reilly (published by Intellect and Live Art Development Agency) entitled Kira O'Reilly: Untitled (Bodies).

My monograph, Mess and Contemporary Performance: Complexity, Containment, and Collapse (Routledge 2024), theorises mess and messiness in live art, theatre, visual art, and film. Whilst performances that are messy in content and style provide a starting point for the book, I focus more substantially on mess as it relates to vulnerability, shame, and resistance as a way of understanding mess as political action. I am currently developing a new research project titled Lingering in Action: Contemporary Performance and Scenes of Stasis, which studies lingering in multiple forms and contexts and asserts the radical potential of lingering for disrupting the complexity of contemporary life.

I have written reviews for Contemporary Theatre Review, Art History, Women. A Cultural Review, Feminist Review, Studies in Theatre and Performance, and the Times Literary Supplement. 

Prior to joining DMU (in January 2019), I taught at King's College London (English and Liberal Arts), Birkbeck (Modern Theatre), and Queen Mary University of London (English and Drama). I have also contributed to teaching at Sotheby's Institute of Art (Contemporary Art) and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Contemporary and Experimental Theatre). 

I am currently an editor of the peer-reviewed journal Studies in Theatre and Performance. At DMU, I am the Institute Head of Research Students for Arts, Design, and Performance, a committee member of DMU's branch of the University and College Union (UCU), and I am the branch Research Representative.

I welcome applications from PhD candidates in areas of contemporary performance, live art, queer, feminist, and activist performance practices, critical theory, visual art, and contemporary art history.

Institute of Arts, Design, and Performance (2024- )

Drama Research Group (2019- )

Institute of Drama, Dance and Performance Studies (2019-2024)

 

Books

• Curtis, H. Mess and contemporary performance: complexity, containment, and collapse (Routledge, 2024).

Journal special issues

• Studies in Theatre and Performance, Seeking solidarity and wonder through performance, Special issue, ed. by Curtis, H. and Clarke, A., 44.1 (March 2024).
• Studies in Theatre and Performance, open-call+response:, Special Issue, ed. by Curtis, H. varin, m., and Wong, C., 42.3 (November 2022).

Edited books

• Curtis, H. and Hargreaves, M. (eds.) Kira O’Reilly: Untitled (Bodies) (London: Live Art Development Agency and Intellect, 2017). 
• Curtis, H., Keidan, L., and Wright, A. (eds.) The Live Art Almanac Volume 4 (London: Live Art Development Agency and Oberon Books, 2016).

Articles

• Curtis, H. ‘In Bad Taste? Vomit and Disgust in Paul McCarthy’s Performances of the 1970s’, Performance Research, 22.7 (2017), pp. 119-25.
• Curtis, H. ‘Fifty Years since Carolee Schneemann’s Meat Joy (1964): A Review of this Iconic, Historical Performance, its Reiterations, and Influence in Performance Art History’, Performance Research, 20.2 (2015), pp. 118-20.
• Curtis, H. ‘Restaging Feminism in Los Angeles: Three Weeks in January (2012): Three Weeks in May (1977)’, n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal, 34 (July 2014), pp. 77-85.
• Curtis, H. ‘Performance Legacies in Print and Practice: High Performance Magazine, 1978-1983’, Platform: Journal of Theatre & Performing Arts, 8.1 (2014), pp. 29-43.

Reviews

• Curtis, H. 'Collaboration and conflict in the women's art movement', review of Women Artists Together: Art in the Age of Women’s Liberation (Yale University Press, 2023), by Amy Tobin, in Women: a cultural review, [in press].
• Curtis, H. Review: The Methuen Drama Companion to Performance Art (Methuen Drama, 2020), ed. by Bertie Ferdman and Jovana Stokic, in New Theatre Quarterly, 36.4 (November 2020), pp. 386-387.
• Curtis, H. Review: The Sensible Stage: Staging and the Moving Image (University of Chicago Press, rev. edn, 2017), ed. by Bridget Crone, in Studies in Theatre and Performance, 40.2 (June 2020), pp. 224-225.
• Curtis, H. Review: Agency: A Partial History of Live Art (Live Art Development Agency and Intellect, 2019), ed. by Theron Schmidt, in New Theatre Quarterly, 36.2 (May 2020), p. 192.  
• Curtis, H. Review: Theatre, Exhibition, and Curation: Displayed & Performed (Routledge, 2016) by Georgina Guy, in Contemporary Theatre Review, 28.4 (2018), pp. 545-546.
• Curtis, H. Review: Art Labor, Sex Politics: Feminist Effects in 1970s British Art and Performance (University of Minnesota Press, 2015), by Siona Wilson, in Feminist Review, 117 (March 2018), pp. 212-213.
• Curtis, H. Review: On Stage: The Theatrical Dimension of Video Image (Intellect, 2016), by Mathilde Roman, in Times Literary Supplement, No. 5914 (August 2016), p. 31. 
• Curtis, H. Review: Live Art in L.A.: Performance in Southern California 1970-1983 (Routledge, 2012), ed. by Peggy Phelan, in Contemporary Theatre Review, 24.1 (2014), pp. 119-120.
• Curtis, H. Review: ‘From Painting to Performance: Figuring the Abject in Los Angeles Art’ (L.A. RAW: Abject Expressionism in Los Angeles 1945-1980, From Rico Lebrun to Paul McCarthy, exh. cat. by Michael Duncan) in Art History 36.1 (2013), pp. 224-226.

Web-based publications

• Curtis, H. Summary text: ‘Andy Warhol, Electric Chair 1964’, Tate, June 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-electric-chair-t07145
• Curtis, H. Summary text: ‘Ann Hamilton, mneme 1994-96’, Tate, June 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hamilton-mneme-t07189
• Curtis, H. Review/selection: ‘Performance Matters: Gavin Butt, Lois Keidan and Adrian Heathfield in Conversation’, Celebrating 25 Years of Contemporary Theatre Review (part 2), Contemporary Theatre Review: Interventions, 25.4, contemporarytheatrereview.org/2015/25th-anniversary-special-issue-2/

Other publications

• Curtis, H. 'Editorial', Studies in Theatre and Performance, 45.1 (March 2025), pp. 1-4.
• Curtis, H. and A. Clarke, 'Editorial: Seeking solidarity and wonder through performance', Studies in Theatre and Performance, 44.1 (March 2024), pp. 1-7.
• Curtis, H. ‘Editorial’, Studies in Theatre and Performance, 41.2 (June 2021), pp. 133-135.
• Curtis, H., m. varin, and C. Wong. 'Editorial: Grounds for Re-wor(l)ding', Studies in Theatre and Performance, 42.3 (November 2022), pp. 231-235.
• Curtis, H. 'Editorial', Studies in Theatre and Performance, 43.3 (November 2023), pp. 257-260.

Contemporary performance, live art, visual culture and art history

Performance documentation and archives

Feminist, queer, and activist performance practices and critical theory

The body in performance

Performance studies, critical theory, interdisciplinary performance-making and research

Contemporary performance, devised practice, and live art

Contemporary art, art history, and visual culture

 

BA (Joint Hons) Art History and English Studies, University of Nottingham (2008)

MA in Art History: Modern Art, Criticism and Display, University of Nottingham (2009)

PhD in Drama, Queen Mary University of London (2014)

Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in Higher Education, King's College London (2016); Fellow of the Higher Education Academy 

CAHE Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills, Capital City Training College, London (2022)

For 2024-25 I am leading and teaching the following modules:

• BA Drama and Theatre Arts: Making Theatre and Performance: Devising and Experimental Practice (level 5); Theatre Company: Ensemble (level 4)
• MA Choreography: Audiences and Documentation (level 7)

Nominated for Interdisciplinary Research Award, DMU (2024)

Nominated for Student Enrichment Award, DMU (2024)

Nominated for Student Choice Teaching Award, DMU (2023)

Nominated for Vice Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award, DMU (2019, 2020)

Nominated for TaPRA Editing Prize for Kira O’Reilly: Untitled (Bodies) (2018)

Live Art Development Agency Research and Publishing Committee, 2017-2021.

TaPRA (Theatre and Performance Research Association), Documenting Performance Working Group co-convenor, 2019-2022.

TaPRA member, 2016-2025.

International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR) member, 2023-24.

Performance Studies International (PSi) member, 2024-25.

British Academy Early Career Network (Midlands), 2021-.

Invited talks

• ‘Mess as Live Art Methodology’, Live Art: Histories of the Present, University of Glasgow, UK, 6-7 April 2022.
• ‘Practice-based-research in the arts’, Putting Theory into Action: Bridging Research and Teaching, International Teaching and Learning Workshop, Sciences Po, Paris, France, 18-19 June 2018.
• ‘Document, Audience, Affect: Festival Performances in Los Angeles of the 1970s and 80s’, Critical and Creative Encounters, University of Birmingham, UK, 30 November 2016.

Papers given

• 'Lingering in action: contemporary performance and scenes of stasis', Documenting Performance working group, Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA), Northumbria University, 4-6 September 2024.
• '"I want your pity. That's what I want": the sexiness and silliness of the hot mess in performances by Katherine Araniello', Performance and Disability working group, International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR), University of the Philppines Diliman, 15-19 July 2024.
• 'Mess, exhaustion, and collapse: practices of incommensurability and survival in Bullyache's TOM (2023)', Performance Studies International, London, 23 June 2024.  
• ‘Hot mess: vulnerability and seduction in the work of Lucy McCormick’, Critical Hunk and Babe Studies, TaPRA Bodies and Performance working group event. Online, UK, 14 April 2023. 
• ‘Messiness in Contemporary Performance: Use, Legibility and Resistance’, Borderlines conference, DMU, UK, 1 July 2022.
• ‘‘A Kind of Love-as-Violence, and Violence-as-Love’: Jenkin Van Zyl’s Looners (2019), gendered violence and pleasure in performance art’, Association for Art History, University of Birmingham/Online, UK, 14-17 April 2021.
• ‘Aftermaths of Performance: Artists who make an “awful mess”’, TaPRA (Theatre & Performance Research Association) conference, University of Exeter, UK, 4-6 September 2019.
• ‘Aftermaths of Performance: Artists who make an “awful mess”’, Borderlines conference, DMU, UK, 20 June 2019.
• ‘Document, Audience, Affect: Johanna Went’s L.A. Club Performances’, TaPRA conference, University of Aberystwyth, UK, 5-7 September 2018.
• ‘Sensibilities and Censorship: John Duncan’s Blind Date (1980)’, TaPRA conference, University of Bristol, UK, 5-7 September 2016.
• ‘The Politics of Cultural Critique: Vomit and Disgust in Paul McCarthy’s Performances of the 1970s’, Shimmering, Shining, Vomiting, Glitter: The Politics and Poetics of Disgust (symposium), Nottingham Contemporary art gallery, Nottingham, UK, 14-15 November 2013.
• ‘Documenting the Live, in History: High Performance Magazine, 1978-1983’, Performance Studies international (PSi) conference, Stanford University, California, USA, 26-30 June 2013.
• ‘“End Rape in Los Angeles”: Restaging Suzanne Lacy’s Three Weeks in May for the Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival’, Feminist and Women’s Studies Association (FWSA) conference, University of Nottingham, UK, 21-23 June 2013.
• ‘The Artists’ Magazine as Archive: High Performance, 1978-1983’, Performing Documents (conference), Arnolfini, Bristol, UK, 12-14 April 2013.      

Panels organised

• Use and Mis-Use (Documenting Performance working group), Theatre & Performance Research Association, University of Essex, UK, 12-14 September 2022.
• Documenting Performance Field Trip: Collectivity and Transformation in the Archive, MayDay Rooms Archive, London, UK, 18 May 2022.
• Speculation and Fabulation (Documenting Performance working group), Theatre & Performance Research Association, Liverpool Hope University/Online, UK, 7-9 September 2021.
• Wayward Temporalities (Documenting Performance working group), Theatre & Performance Research Association, University of Exeter, UK, 4-6 September 2019.

Panel discussions and in-conversation events

• Mess and Contemporary Performance book launch and in-conversation with Emma Frankland, Daniel Oliver, and Eirini Kartsaki, introduced by Harriet Curtis. Online, DMU, Leicester, UK, 10 April 2025.
• Aaron Williamson in conversation with Harriet Curtis. Online, DMU, Leicester, UK, 27 March 2023. 
• Kira O’Reilly in conversation with Rob La Frenais, Martin Hargreaves, and Janet Smith, introduced by Harriet Curtis and Dominic Johnson, Barts Pathology Museum, London, UK, 6 December 2017.
• Kira O’Reilly in conversation with Amanda Coogan and Fergus Byrne, introduced by Harriet Curtis, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland, 5 December 2017.
• Kira O’Reilly in conversation with Melisa Grant, Essi Kausalainen, and Mari Keski-Korsu, introduced by Harriet Curtis, Tiedekulma, Helsinki, Finland, 15 November 2017.
• Megan Vaughan in conversation with Harriet Curtis, Lois Keidan, and Aaron Wright, Live Art Development Agency, London, UK, 28 June 2016.

Alison Hoffmeister (Midlands4Cities Scholarship), Saggy tits and wobbly bits: postpartum bodies in live art. 1st Supervisor.

Estelle Papadimitriou, From the interstices: contemporary performative practice, liminality, and transformative cultural production. 1st Supervisor.

Maria Kulikovska (Midlands4Cities Scholarship), Finding agency in вразливість (fragility/vulnerability): A multidisciplinary art approach towards healing for thedisplaced, nomadic female artist. 2nd Supervisor.

Negar Tahsili (Midlands4Cities Scholarship), Veiled bodies, Naked minds, Resistant souls: Utilising interdisciplinary arts to decolonize the image of Iranian women in post-revolutionary cinema. 2nd Supervisor.

Rosie Garton, The Political Performance of Cycling: The Female, the Bicycle and the Gendered Urban Space. 2nd Supervisor.

Completed PhD projects

• James Chantry, Ghosts from the past: New Queer Realms through Art and Technology. 1st Supervisor.
• Ben Hunt, Performing Trauma in the Vegan and Animal Rights Movement. 2nd Supervisor.

Glynne Wickham Scholarship: to support attendance at Performance Studies international conference, Stanford University, USA, 2013.

 

Creatively Innovating the Archive, DMU QR-funding, Jan-March 2023, co-leader with 'Funmi Adewole, Alissa Clarke, and Elinor Parsons

• Editor, Studies in Theatre and Performance (2021-)
• Completion of DMU's competitive Future Research Leaders programme (2021)
• Member of the DMU Peer Review College, Faculty of Arts, Design, and Humanities (2020-)

 

0000-0002-0794-0076

I have peer reviewed for the following journals and publishers: 

• Contemporary Theatre Review
• MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture
• Studies in Theatre and Performance
• Routledge
• Intellect
• Bloomsbury

• External specialist, BA Liberal Arts periodic review, King's College London (2025)
• External panel member, periodic review of FdA and BA Performing Arts, Bournemouth and Poole College and Arts University Bournemouth (2023)
• External panel member, re-validation of MA Performance, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, London (2022)

 

I have chaired and internally examined PhDs (written and practice-based) at DMU and have externally examined at University of Dundee and Goldsmiths, University of London.