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Dr Stephen Purcell

purcell deptAssociate Professor (Reader)

Email: S dot Purcell at warwick dot ac dot uk
Tel: +44 (0)24 7657 3091


FAB 546

Faculty of Arts Building
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL


About

Dr Stephen Purcell is Associate Professor (Reader), and teaches on the English and Comparative Literary Studies program. He joined Warwick in October 2011 from Southampton Solent University, where he co-developed and led the English Literature degree scheme. He also directs for the theatre company The Pantaloons.

Research interests

My research focuses on the performance of the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries on the modern stage and on screen. My particular research interests include theories of the audience, space, popular culture, parody, adaptation, and comedy, and I am as interested in ‘Shakespeare’ as a 20th- and 21st-century cultural phenomenon as I am in Shakespeare the dramatist. I regularly lead practical workshops on Shakespeare at conferences and elsewhere.

Teaching and supervision

I would be keen to supervise projects on Shakespeare and his contemporaries in performance, and on modern performance theory and practice. I am keen to encourage practice-as-research projects.

Completed PhD supervisions:

  • Andrew Fletcher, ‘Shakespeare and the Fiction of Theatre’
  • Julie Hudson, ‘The Environment on Stage: Scenery or Shapeshifter?’ (2017) co-supervised with Prof. Carol Rutter
  • Angus Love, ‘Badiou’s Twisted Contemporaneity: Inaesthetics, Spectatorship and the Contemporary’ (Chancellor's), co-supervised with Prof.Thomas Docherty
  • Sophie Shorland, ‘“Blazing Stars”: Early Modern Celebrity Culture, 1580-1626’ (CADRE)
  • Alys Daroy, ‘Biophilic Shakespeare’ (Warwick Monash Alliance), co-supervised with Dr Paul Prescott and Dr Fiona Gregory (Monash).

Current PhD students:

  • Yangzi Zhou, ‘“Live” is Elsewhere: Intermedial Theatricality in British Theatre Broadcasting Programmes, 2009-2020’ (China Scholarships Council / University of Warwick), co-supervised with Dr Tim White.

Selected publications

Monographs
    Other publications

    Qualifications

    • BA; MA; PhD (Kent)

    Office hours

    My office hours in Term 2 will be 3-4pm on Mondays and 1-2pm on Tuesdays. Please sign up for a slot here. Other times available by appointment.

    Teaching

    Undergraduate modules

    EN301 Shakespeare and Selected Dramatists of his Time

    EN302 European Theatre

    EN381 Remaking Shakespeare

    Postgraduate modules

    EN9A7 Drama and Performance Theory