Dr Louie Jenkins
Senior Lecturer
About
Louie Jenkins is a writer and performer who has worked throughout the UK and America as an actor, director, tutor and writer.
As an actor her professional career began with John Godber’s Hull Truck Theatre Company before moving to San Francisco, USA to become Director-in-Residence at the New Conservatory Theatre Centre.
On her return to the UK she became Company Manager at Y-Touring Theatre Company followed by the post of Director at Hillingdon Youth Arts.
She has taken young people to perform in Sibiu, Romania, Amritsar, India and Lahore, Pakistan.
As a writer she has written plays, performances and the feature film Ash.
Louie was a founding member of Factory Floor a national network for female performers, writers and directors.
Dr Louie Jenkins’ doctorate Shame and its Positive: Mourning, Class and Queer Performativity, explores the performance of autobiographical narratives of mourning and the complex relationship between dying, death and culture.
She created three solo performances in relation to her research: Moth (2010) – Blue Coat, Liverpool (2009), Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Five Fragments (2011) -Homotopia, Liverpool and Time Piece (2012-2014) – New Conservatory Theatre Center, San Francisco and The Show Room, Chichester.
Publications: Staging Loss: Performance as Commemoration (2018), Basingstoke: Palgrave Macm
Professional
Louie has performed and presented research papers at a number Theatre and Performance Research (TaPRA) conferences:
- Phantom of the Aperture (with Dr. Jem Kelly) (Leeds University 2008)
- Death Bird (Plymouth University 2009)
- Death Paper (University of Glamorgan 2010)
- Articulating the Scripted Body (Kingston University 2011)
Also:
- Writing Mum (2014) Performing Grief Conference, Sorbonne, Paris
- The Art of Mourning: Shame, Grief and Performative Memorialization (2016) Staging Loss Conference, Lincoln University
Upcoming:
- Transparency: Shame, Mourning and the Performance of “I” (2016) American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), Minneapolis, USA
Louie, in collaboration with the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco, USA, teaches site-specific performance (the Spoke Collective) at Burning Man.
The focus of the class explores ephemeral performance methods as defined and impacted by the harsh desert environment. As a member of Burning Nerds Louie is working on a chapter for the upcoming publication Carnival of Consciousness: Practice as Research in Black Rock City (2017).
She is currently working on The Trace Project, which focuses on generating workshops about the art of mourning and memorialization contextualized through affective neuroscience.
PhD Supervision
Louie is interested in hearing from theatre/performance studies students in areas of Shame, Queer, Class and Death (Thanatology) studies.
Research Output
Book Sections
Jenkins, L. (2018) Trace: Shame and the Art of Mourning. In: Staging Loss: Performance as Commemoration. Palgrave Performance . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 197-214. ISBN 9783319979694 10.1007/978-3-319-97970-0
Conference or Workshop Items
Jenkins, L. (2011) Articulating the Scripted Body. In: Theatre & Performance Research Association Conference, 7-9 Sept 2011, University of Kingston. (Submitted)
Jenkins, L. (2011) Five Fragments: Exorcism, Erotica and Performance. In: 18th Lesbian Lives Conference: Revolting: Bodies, Politics & Genders, 11-12 Feb 2011, University of Brighton. (Submitted)
Shows/Exhibitions
Jenkins, L. (2011) Smoke for Dust. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Jenkins, L. (2010) Five Fragments. [Shows/Exhibitions]
Other department members
Andy Roberts
Showroom Administrator - Theatre (Performing Arts)/Dance
