About Me

Alison began her doctoral research in October 2019 funded by a CADRE scholarship after a career in senior management in the communications and criminal justice sectors. Her thesis 'Mediating Victimhood' uses Practice as Research (PaR) to investigate the use of verbatim methodologies to re-present the stories of survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking from Albania.

As a non-executive director she has advised several government agencies including the National Crime Agency and the Crown Prosecution Service. She is a trustee for the theatre companies ThickSkin and Synergy Theatre Project and former trustee of Out of Joint and Told by an Idiot. Alison is also an actor, playwright and poet and was longlisted for the National Poetry Prize in 2015 and 2019.

Research Interests

Alison is interested in post-verbatim methodologies and intermedial practice which she explores through the creation of a series of audio monologues, a dance film and an installation. Her practice is based on collaboration with performers, charities and NGOs including the Medaille Trust and Black Country Women's Aid in the UK and the Mary Ward Loreto Foundation and Arise in Albania. Her research considers the ethics of using the stories of real, living people in performance and the role of artistic mediation in advocacy for victims and survivors.

Alison is supervised by Professor Silvija Jestrovic.

Education

BA: Modern Languages (French and German), University of Leeds

MA: Creative Entrepreneurship (Creative Writing), University of East Anglia

LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/alisonjporter
Twitter: @wknighttheatre
Theatre company website: www.whiteknighttheatre.com

Publications

Academic

The Boyfriend Trick – organiser of an interactive installation and panel discussion on the use of verbatim methodologies for social change, University of Warwick, March 2023.

‘Making The Boyfriend Trick Dance Film’, Arts for Social Change showcase (online). February 2023.

‘Using Verbatim Methodologies to Embody Survivor Experience’ showing of The Boyfriend Trick dance film at the University of Warwick, PGR Symposium, October 2022.

Review: The Global and Local Appeal of Kneehigh Theatre Company: Brand Kneehigh by Catherine Trenchfield. Book review for Cambridge Scholars, 2022.

‘Theatre & Performance Studies and Film & Television Studies Team Create a Film about Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking from Albania.’ Blog for Warwick University, Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL), 2022.

‘The Boyfriend Trick – Investigating Liminality through Verbatim Theatre’. Paper selected for IFTR general panels, June 2022.

 The Boyfriend Trick public screening and Q&A. Feelings of Freedom Festival, Warwick Arts Centre, Nov 2021.

‘A Creative Response to Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking from Albania.’ Blog for the Anti-Slavery Early Career Research Network, November 2021.

The Boyfriend Trick screening and panel member at the Healing the Wounds of Modern Slavery symposium. St Mary’s University, Twickenham, October 2021.

The Boyfriend Trick screening, installation and panel at the Collisions Festival. Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (RCSSD), September 2021.

‘Unravelling Verbatim Theatre Methodologies in the Theatre of Social Justice’. IFTR New Scholars Forum (online), July 2021.

‘Revisions through Performance Practice in Verbatim Theatre’ at the TAPRA/SCUDD PGR Digital Revisions Symposium, University of Warwick, June 2022.

‘Verbatim Methodologies in the Theatre of Social Justice' organiser of ParLab, a discussion forum for PaR researchers with Lung Theatre Company and Prof John Holmwood of Nottingham University, University of Warwick, Feb 2020.

Creative

The Boyfriend Trick dance film - selected for the Boulder Ballet (BB) dance film festival, Colorado, April 2022, Smiley Charity Film Awards, December 2022 and Wicklow Screen Dance Laboratory, Ireland in 2023.

Land of Eagles, audio drama, broadcast by the Medaille Trust, November 2021.

'The Neighbours' Child' long-listed for the National Poetry Prize 2019
'Cycle' long-listed for the National Poetry Prize, 2015.
‘Daddy’s Shoes’, Caterpillar Magazine, 2016.
‘An Old Friend’ Tremble,The University of Canberra Vice Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize anthology, 2016.

‘A Tramp’. Found Plays at The Royal Court. 2014.
‘Carwash (It’s not my name)’. One Festival Monologues, The Space Theatre, Docklands, 2013.
‘Borgia’s Kitchen’. Film Trailer Competition Runner Up. ENO, 2011.
‘Late Bus’ play. Camden Peoples Theatre and UEA Studio, 2008.