Discover how our research is changing the world at our Professorial Inaugural Lectures.
Each year we invite our newly appointed Professors to take part in the prestigious Professorial Inaugural Lectures series to mark this milestone in their academic careers.
As we enter the 60th anniversary of the University, we would be delighted if you were able to join us to celebrate our new Professors. Since 2013, this inspirational series has showcased our internationally significant research with over 60 lectures on a wide range of topics from the Laws of War, Inequality and Mortality and being Indigenous in the twenty-first century.
It's a chance for you to hear about our research from our leading thinkers and get a global perspective on issues across our three faculties - from the social sciences, science and health and the arts and humanities. Professors are able to introduce themselves and share their current and future research with wider audiences. It is also a chance for them to celebrate the support from family and friends, from colleagues, mentors, and collaborators past and present.
As well as an opportunity to hear about their research, you are also invited to join our new Professors to celebrate with a drinks reception and networking following the lectures.
On Tuesday 21 May please join our newly appointed Professors from our Faculty of Arts and Humanities as they share insights from their ongoing research:
Tuesday 21 May, 7.00pm at Firstsite, Colchester
Faculty of Arts and Humanities Professorial Inaugural Lectures
Professor Holly Maples, East 15 Acting School: Decolonising Heritage Sites through Immersive Heritage Performance.
Between 2017 and 2023 I created a number of site-specific performance projects designed to engage the public in troubled and ‘hidden’ histories at museums and heritage sites. Designed to challenge existing narratives and reveal complex histories, My performance-as-research projects are particularly designed to challenge, decolonise, and de-centre traditional power structures, and “animate” heritage and museum sites for 21st century audiences in what I term ‘embodied curatorship’. My work is part of a larger trend in the heritage industry using immersive performance to critically engage heritage audiences with a decolonising process of history. The UK Museum Association defined decolonisation as ‘a long-term process that seeks to recognise the integral role of empire in British museums –from their creation to the present day. Decolonisation requires a reappraisal of our institutions and their history and an effort to address colonial structures and approaches to all areas of museum work’ (Museum Association, 2019). Decolonising is a process undergone by institutions to ‘expand the perspectives they portray beyond those of a dominant cultural group, particularly white colonizers’ (Steve Nelson, 2020). The process includes not only a changing of representation in exhibitions and museum staff and leadership, but also in the ways the public engages with the museum in its entirety.
My site-specific performance practice experiments with innovative digital and non-digital immersive storytelling to decolonise heritage sites. I combine archival textual sources with immersive and participatory theatre techniques designed to enhance audiences' affectual, imaginative, and embodied response to history. This inaugural address will focus on how my recent PaR projects exploring heritage sites connections with the transatlantic slave trade in Britain and the United States may provide a framework to engage the public in troubled histories through a variety of theatrical methods and digital devices (including binaural audio and mixed reality hololens) to unsettle audiences’ prior assumptions of history and investigate the use of performative methods in the ‘21st Century museum’.
Professor Elizabeth Kuti, Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies: Being Someone Else: Playwriting, Politics, and the idea of a University.
Please join us for a drinks reception at Firstsite following the event.
Tickets
Admission is free to this event and open to all but a seat must be reserved via Eventbrite (or by sending an email to events@essex.ac.uk or telephoning 01206 873270) in advance.
We hope to offer a live-stream for these lectures but are waiting to complete technical tests at the venue. Please email events@essex.ac.uk if you would like to watch the lectures via live-stream.
Reserving a ticket for this event does not guarantee your seat. Due to the high frequency of uncollected tickets, we will be releasing more tickets than we have seats. Doors will open at 6.45pm and seats will be allocated to people on the booking list on a first-come, first-served basis. Thank-you for your understanding.
Firstsite
We are delighted to hold these Professorial Inaugural Lectures at Firstsite as part of our 60th anniversary programme. You can find out more about Firstsite on their webpage.
