Ella McCarthy (CSSD) - 2023-24 Students
ella.mccarthy@cssd.ac.uk

‘We’re all gay here’: Mapping queer identities through applied theatre co-research with LGBTQIA+ youth

This studentship will advance queer studies by focusing on emergent LGBTQIA+ identities among young people through methods of embodied co-research. Engaging with queer youth and queer facilitators as co-researchers, the CDA will create a socially engaged theatre performance with LGBTQIA+ young people and a series of ethical blueprints and practical workshops to provide training for queer and allied youth practitioners working creatively with LGBTQIA+ young people.

Current queer research often positions LGBTQIA+ young people as silent, oppressed, or impossible rather than recognising their insights into queer identities, whilst applied theatre has not adequately interacted with queer studies and methods to develop work with LGBTQIA+ young people. This project engages performance practices at the intersection of these fields, using applied theatre as a research methodology that places the young people as experts and co-researchers

to reorient queer studies towards more substantive engagements with queer youth. This research will offer an account of young LGBTQIA+ identities in defiance of rising cases of homophobic and transphobic hate crime, and increasing discrimination against LGBTQIA+ young people. The student will be supported by Central’s long-established excellence in both queer performance studies and applied theatre, and Contact’s 50 years of work with young people in Manchester.

Primary supervisor: Selina Busby

Secondary supervisor: Joe Parslow