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Sky Herington

Research Student

Research Area: Francophone African theatre; French (post)colonial cultural politics

Supervisor: Dr Yvette Hutchison

Co-Supervisor: Prof. Pierre-Philippe Fraiture

Email: sky.herington@warwick.ac.uk

About me:
Sky began her PhD at Warwick in 2018, funded by CADRE. Her interdisciplinary thesis is supervised by Dr Yvette Hutchison (TPS) and Professor Pierre-Philippe Fraiture (SMLC). Prior to her PhD, she studied French and Philosophy at the University of Oxford and Comparative Literature and Francophone Studies at the École normale supérieure de Lyon, before working as a secondary school teacher in London.
 
Research interests:
Sky's thesis looks at the relationship between embodiment and power in the theatre of the Congolese playwright Sony Labou Tansi (1947-1995). She examines these performances of power from different perspectives, analysing the plays' depictions of oppression and resistance in relation to state authoritarianism, cultural imperialism, gender-based violence and the exploitation of natural resources. Her work aims to incorporate both textual and performance analyses and involves work on the reception of Sony's work, both past and present, in the Republic of the Congo, where Sony founded his company, Rocado Zulu Théâtre, and across the world. Beyond the thesis itself, Sky's other research interests include French cultural politics in post-colonial Africa, contemporary urban performance in Brazzaville and Kinshasa, and embodied trauma and healing.