Dr Bobby Smith
Associate Professor of Theatre and Performance
Email: bobby dot smith at warwick dot ac dot uk
Phone: (+44) (0) 24 7652 3021 (Ext. 23021)
Faculty of Arts Building
University of Warwick,
Coventry, CV4 7HS.
Office Hours
Thursdays 1-2pm (in my office)
Email me if you need to meet outside of these times.
About
I am a practitioner and researcher committed to exploring social action and change with community groups through arts and performance. Before working in universities, I was a freelance community artist, workshop leader and consultant involved in a range of art-based projects including: violence prevention; work with young people in criminal justice settings; exploring peace and conflict; drugs and sex and relationships education; projects with refugees and migrants. I also devised theatre for and with different groups, including forum theatre about HIV/AIDS and gender-equality, performances for young audiences and work with young people experiencing homelessness. Alongside facilitating and creating projects, I also coordinated and managed several initiatives, trained people in the use of art-based approaches and developed handbooks and resources for several charities. I have been part of projects in the UK, Kenya, Hong Kong, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi.
Through both my teaching and research I hope to examine the claims made for applied and socially engaged performance and support artistic and creative approaches to activism, education, and social action. I enjoy working in collaboration with artists and communities - most recently I have been part of projects that have supported artists to create work about the climate crisis in Coventry and about legacies of violence in Northern Ireland and Rwanda. I have also collaborated with artists and cultural organisations in my teaching, particularly for the MA Applied Theatre: Arts, Action, Change, which I coordinate, and through the undergraduate module 'On it's Feet' which invites external artists to co-devise work with students. In 2023/24, students on this module worked with Stan's Cafe to adapt one of their pieces to explore how budgets and financing operates in universities.
I have published mostly in the area of applied and socially engaged performance, particularly on themes such as uses of theatre in global development contexts, theatre, performance and violence, and applied theatre and climate crisis. I am a co-editor of the journal Applied Theatre Research.
Professional Associations
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Administrative RolesDirector of Postgraduate Taught programmes, SCAPVC Course Leader MA Applied Theatre: Arts, Action, Change Deputy Chair, SCAPVC Ethics Committee |
Qualifications
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Research interestsMy research and practice explores the possibilities of applied and socially engaged performance. I am particularly interested in how we might foster global networks of solidarity and collaboration through the arts. Previous and ongoing research projects have investigated theatre and development initiatives. More recently, I have led projects investigating arts, theatre and peacebuilding. This work included an AHRC-funded research network with collaborators in Northern Ireland, Rwanda, Kenya, and France. Future artistic and research collaborations are emerging from this work. Since 2020, I have worked with colleagues including Dr Rachel Turner-King (Education Studies) and a range of external artists to establish an education research collective: 'Acting on Climate'. Our focus is to support teachers, artists and young people to co-explore the climate crisis. You can find out more and access artworks and resources by visiting the project website. I currently supervise PhD students working on topics related to my research, and welcome proposals exploring aspects of applied theatre, performance and the climate crisis, and arts and global development. |
PublicationsBook 2024 Theatre and Global Development: Performing Partnerships, Palgrave https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55725-5 Edited collections and journal issues 2024 Special issue of Research in Drama Education - 'Confronting the Global Climate Crisis: Responsibility, Agency, and Action', co-edited with Rachel Turner-King https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/crde20/29/2 2024 Applied Theatre and the Sustainable Development Goals: Crises, Collaboration and Beyond, co-edited with Taiwo Afolabi and Abdul Karim Hakib, Routledge https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003334842Link opens in a new window Journal articles and chapters Forthcoming in 2025 'From participation to partnership: Fostering agency in a peace building project in Western Kenya', co-written with Maxwel Okuto in Applied Theatre: Participation, edited by Taiwo Afolabi. Bloomsbury Methuen. 2024 'Engaging youth with the climate crisis: Playful tactics for dialogue and devising', co-written with Rachel Turner-King in Global Climate Education and its Discontents: Using Drama to Forge a New Way, edited by Kathleen Gallagher and Christine Balt. Routledge. Doi:10.4324/9781032615714-5 2024 'With One Breath: Creating art on the climate crisis between the UK and Uganda', co-written with Hussein Maddan, Becky Warnock and Rachel Turner-King in Routledge Handbook of Arts and Global Development, edited by Vicki-Ann Ware, Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta, Tim Prentki, Wasim Al Kurdi, and Patrick Kabanda. Routledge. Doi: 10.4324/9781003289838Link opens in a new window 2023 ' Keeping the Peace? Perspectives from Kenyan practitioners working in applied performance and peacebuilding on project challenges, funding, and support', co-written with Maxwel Okuto, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. Doi: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13569783.2023.2211932 2022 'Performing Violence, Devising Futures? Performance with and by young people in Rwanda and Uganda', co-written with Hope Azeda and Lillian Mbabazi in Routledge Companion to Theatre and Young People, edited by Selina Busby, Kelly Freebody and Charlene Rajendran. Routledge. 2022 'Performance and the transnational public sphere in Rwanda' in Cahiers de Litterature Orale, Doi: https://doi.org/10.4000/clo.10019 2022 'Three reflections on facilitation' in Terms of Engagement, by Becky Warnock and Kate Watson 2021 'Water, sanitation and hygiene in refugee camps in Uganda: Photo essay', co-written with Hussein Maddan in Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2020.1792282 2020 'Conclusion/Provocations: Applied theatre and global/sustainable/development', Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2020.1804348 2017 ‘Performing Partnership: The possibilities of decentring the expertise of international practitioners in Theatre for Development Partnerships’, Applied Theatre Research, 5 (1): 37-51. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1386/atr.5.1.37_1 2017 'You have to do it - it's important! If you don't nobody will know what it's like!': A response to The House from an applied theatre practitioner', Studies in Theatre and Performance, 31 (1): 101-104. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2017.1282403 2017 ‘Reflecting on the Challenges of Applied Theatre in Kenya’, co-written with Maxwel Okuto, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 22 (1): 292-300. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2017.1293509 2015 ‘What’s in a Name? Shifts in Identity, Impact and Delivery in a National Volunteer-led Programme Using Applied Drama to Learn English’, co-written with Anne Smith, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 20 (4): 524-530. |
Case Studies:
Teaching and SupervisionContemporary Performance Practices (1st year core module, Module Convenor) Ways of Doing - unit on community performance and climate crisis (2nd year) Applying Theatre (3rd year, Module Convenor) Postgraduate - MA Applied Theatre: Arts, Action, Change Theorising and Facilitating Applied Theatre: Ethics and Reflective Practice (Module Convenor) Dissertation Emily Walsh (2020 - ) Applied theatre and neurodiversity (co-supervised with Prof Yvette Hutchison) Stephen Okpadah (Chancellor's Scholarship 2021 - ) Applied Theatre and climate justice in Nigeria (co-supervised with Dr Milija Gluhovic) AMM Noor-Us-Saiyem Khan (Leverhulme TRANSFORM Scholarship 2022 - ) Arts, participation, and refugees in the UK (co-supervised with Dr Xiaodong Lin) Josie Davies (M4C) Collaborative Doctoral Award with China Plate, hosted at Birmingham University (supervisory team including Prof Adam Ledger, Ed Collier, Shahnaz Akhter) |
Grants
2024 Acting on Climate: Growing youth eco-citizenship across the city and beyond - Total of £50,000 from Warwick Participatory Research and Place-based Research Funds (Co-I with Rachel Turner-King - PI - Education)
2022 British Academy and British Institute of East Africa Knowledge Frontiers - Truth, Justice, Peace
2021-2023 Stages of Violence Research Network - Arts and Humanities Research Council, £45,000 (PI)
2022 ESRC Impact Acceleration - Acting on Climate, £35,000 (Co-I with Rachel Turner-King - PI - Education)
2021 With One Breath: Engaging young people in the UK and Uganda in Climate Crisis - Arts and Humanities Research Council, £10,000 (PI, with Rachel Turner-King - Co-I - Education)
2020 Coventry City of Culture Fund, £4,000 (with Rachel Turner-King - PI - Education)
2019 Theatre and Peacebuilding in Kenya - IAS Award, £4,700 (with Maxwel Okuto, Amani People's Theatre)
2019 Challenges of theatre and peacebuilding in Uganda and Rwanda - GCRF, £4,000
2016 British Council and Arts Council England International Artists' Development Fund, £5,000
2015 PhD Scholarship, University of Manchester
2011 MA Scholarship, Leeds University