Honorary lecture by Kirsten Shepherd-Barr

Kirsten Shepherd-Barr will share her experiences of innovation and collaboration through three key examples:

Her project with Breach Theatre company in developing an original new play about Norwegian-born author Laura Kieler, the real woman behind Ibsen’s play "A Doll’s House"; her  digital reading project LitHits and the core teamwork on which it is built; and her digital humanities ‘life-writing’ project "Pulling Up Stakes", which continues the longer-term recovery of lost or neglected women writers that she has been engaged in since the beginning of her career. 

Along the way, she will reflect on how her two other main research areas – her ongoing scholarship on Ibsen’s plays, and her interest in the relationship between science and theatre, which have likewise grown and deepened through the vital sense of connection and collaboration across disciplinary and linguistic boundaries within and beyond the university.

Kirsten Shepherd-Barr is a professor of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Oxford. She has been awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Bergen for her work with modern theater and drama, including Henrik Ibsen. She is among the foremost international scholars of modern theatre and drama, including the staging and reception of Henrik Ibsen’s plays. Shepherd-Barr was among the first to develop the field of theatre and science, and her research has also concerned theatre and gender, with a focus on female playwrights and artists. She has longstanding experience in collaborating with theatres, and is currently working with Breach Theatre on a new play about Laura Kieler, and is the entrepreneur, founder and developer of the innovative project LitHits.