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Dr Ian Farnell

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Teaching Fellow in Theatre and Performance Studies
Senior tutor and Director of Practice
Office: FAB1.43

I am an award-winning teacher leading on modules across the Theatre and Performance Studies undergraduate programme.

As a member of the Warwick community, I am passionate about protecting and preserving the natural world. I work in collaboration with the university's sustainability team to promote the importance of nature to our students, and I am working with colleagues from across multiple disciplines on climate change-related projects. I am also an avid (if entirely average) bird photographer and can occasionally be found in the greener parts of campus, squinting upwards.

Beyond this, much of my research has been dedicated to the intersection between theatre and science fiction. Across the twenty-first century, there have been multiple plays that have drawn on science-fictional imagery and I am especially interested in how these productions are using the genre to imaginatively intervene on the social and political anxieties of the contemporary moment. More broadly, I am interested in the relationship between theatre, performance and genres which fall under the label of “the fantastic”, including fantasy, horror, the gothic, folklore, and other non-realist popular forms.

Finally, having spent over a decade working in retail as a way of supporting my doctoral studies, I am interested in how customer service can be understood through the lens of performance.

Publications

Monographs and edited collections

Forthcoming: Science Fiction and Contemporary British Theatre. London: Methuen

Forthcoming: Theatre, Performance and the Fantastic Vol. 1: Stages and Scripts. London: Methuen

Forthcoming: Theatre, Performance and the Fantastic Vol. 2: Practices and Politics. London: Methuen

Articles

2021: 'Theatre, Science Fiction, and Care Robots: Embodying Contemporary Experiences of Care'. Theatre Journal 73 (3): pp.373-389. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2021.0073 

2020: ‘Science, Science Fiction, and Nick Payne’s Elegy: A Conceptual Third Way’. Studies in Theatre and Performance 40 (2): pp. 206-223. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2019.1608125

2019: ‘Science Fiction and the Theatre of Alistair McDowall’. Contemporary Theatre Review 29 (2): 121-137. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10486801.2019.1591388

2019: ‘In space, no one can hear you say you didn’t “get” it: theatre, science fiction, and genre snobbery’. Contemporary Theatre Review Interventions July 2019. https://www.contemporarytheatrereview.org/2019/in-space-nobody-can-hear-you-say-you-didnt-get-it-theatre-science-fiction-and-genre-snobbery/

2017: ‘Utopian dreams, dystopian realities in Lucy Kirkwood and Anne Washburn’. Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction 46 (128): 38-47

Book chapters

Forthcoming: 'Contemporary Theatre and Medical Science Fiction'. The Edinburgh Companion to Science Fiction and the Medical Humanities, ed. Gavin Miller, Anna McFarlane and Donna McCormack. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press

2019: ‘Alistair McDowall’s X: Science Fiction Theatre’. Sci-Fi: A Companion, ed. Jack Fennell. 2019. Oxford: Peter Lang Publishing

Reviews

2021: 'Things are Heating Up: Reflections on Utopia, Dystopia and Climate Change, the 20th International Conference of the Utopian Studies Society, Europe'. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal 8 (2): 1-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v8i2.531

2019: ‘A manual for near-future parenting: Thomas Eccleshare’s Instructions for Correct Assembly’. Fantastika 3 (1): 149-152

2017: Mars: After the Crisis review’. Fantastika Journal 1 (2): 177-179

Teaching

Undergraduate modules 2023/24

Theatre and Performance in Context (module convenor)

Playwriting (module convenor)

Practice-based Research Project

From Text to Performance

Research dissertation

Previous teaching

Ways of Doing

Contemporary Performance Practices

Theatre and Social Abjection

Theatre and Nation

Events organisation

2023: Conference organiser, Performing the Fantastic in Contemporary Culture, University of Warwick, 25th May

2019: Organiser and panel chair, “Staging the future”, British Science Festival, 12th September

Awards

2023: Associate Fellowship, Institute of Advanced Study

2022: Winner, Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence

2022: Early Career Teaching Fellowship, Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning

2022: Early Career Fellowship, Institute of Advanced Study

2021: Finalist, Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence

2020: Associate Fellowship, Advance HE

2018: Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in the Humanities