Martin Heaney
Senior Lecturer
Drama, Theatre and Performance
Martin Heaney is a Senior Lecturer in Drama, Theatre and Performance at the University of East London. His teaching and practice draws on 30 years’ experience as a performer, and facilitator in drama education. He writes and researches, with a special interest in the representation of masculinity and young people. He is beginning a research bid with partners to explore the relevance of historic subjects in the production of contemporary drama.
Martin is also engaged with racial equity initiatives, in particular exploring the idea of staff dialogue with students to eradicate the degree award gap for students identified as black or minority ethnic. Some outcomes of this work can be viewed online.
Areas Of Interest
I continue to work in the Get Creative programme led by Creative Barking and Dagenham, exploring the role of artist-facilitators as cultural connectors. This initiative reflects my professional experience as a leader in directing and evaluating school/artist partnerships and collaborations.
This work is part of a long-term engagement in researching the role of the academic as cultural intermediary and broker of cross-sectoral networking and collaboration.
I also am developing networks with artists and academics with interests in working in arts-based research to address 'toxic' masculinity.
OVERVIEW
My research interests reflect long experience as an Applied Drama practitioner, directing and developing workshops with diverse communities since the 1990s. Activities include leading roles in Theatre in Health and HIV Education (YTouring) and co-directing a Community Interest Company, HertsCreation, delivering innovative arts education partnership projects in Hertfordshire 2010-2014.
Current activity includes research and evaluation for GetCreative, a Paul Hamlyn funded programme in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham to develop artists as facilitators and community 'connectors' to promote increased participation in the arts.
I am a co-facilitator for the White Anti-Racist Group in ACI, a new pilot initiative addressing UEL's Race Equality priorities. I am also working on a research project Eradicating the BAME Student Award Gap in Higher Education - Co-Creating Strategies with Students.
CURRENT RESEARCH
I am currently publishing different articles based on my PhD Study on the Representation of the Male Adolescent in British Theatre since 1900.
The first article Staging the Delinquent. Edwardian Theatre and 'The Hooligan' appears in the New Theatre Quarterly Journal, November 2020. Vol.36. No.34. I am also writing a chapter for the Routledge Companion to Young People's Theatre (publication date October 2021) on the work of Edward Bond.
On the research project Eradicating the BAME Student Award Gap in Higher Education - Co-Creating Strategies with Students I am supporting student-curated events in the ACI school, including a webinar in 2021 with outcomes including co-authored resources and a toolkit.
Martin lives with Brain cancer and is exploring this experience through research and performance. You can find out more on his podcast.
PUBLICATIONS
- His next publication: Edward Bond And The Representation of Adolescent Crisis, appears in ’ The Routledge Guide to Theatre and Young People’ (Eds. Busby, Freebody, Rajendran ) in October 1922.
- 'Partnership, Research and Teacher Enquiry' in Exploring Creative Learning, ed. McGill, C., N'Guessan, T., Rosen. M., (Trentham Books, London, 2007)
- Staging the Delinquent. Edwardian Theatre and 'The Hooligan', New Theatre Quarterly November 2020. Vol.36. No.34
MODULES
- L5 Cultural Entrepreneurship – Brokering partnerships with local arts organisations.
- Dissertations - Academic Writing L6
- Critical Theory - Introduction to Critical Analysis and Theoretical Frameworks on Gender, Race and Identity in Performance L4
- PhD Co-Supervisor - Millennial Theatre. Tom Drayton