Circus Diaries founder Kate completed her PhD at Cardiff University in the summer of 2024. Congratulations Dr Katharine Kavanagh! More updates from her research will be added to these pages in due course, but for now here are some early presentations that describe the basis of her study, and links to additional circademic* writing projects she has been working on…
Links to other circus writing projects completed while working on the PhD and since:
- Commission for Sztuka Cyrko introducing new vocabularies for analysis of circus performance https://sztukacyrku.pl/teksty/some-future-vocabularies-for-circus-analysis/
- Commissioned biography of British circus proprietor Gerry Cottle, for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Performance review of The Wing Scuffle Spectacular, by The Revel Puck Circus, for the journal of the International Association of Theatre Critics Kavanagh, K. 2024. ‘Of Balance, Oscillation and Feelling: A Twenty-first-century Circus Experience’. In Critical Stages/Scènes Critiques. IATC/l’AICT
- Commission for Circostrada blog introducing concepts of metamodernism in relation to circus Kavanagh K. 2023. ‘Where Circus and Metamodernism Meet: Practice in a Dawning Era’. Circostrada. https://www.circostrada.org/en/blog/where-circus-and-metamodernism-meet-practice-dawning
- Editor of and contributor to the documentation from The Metamodern Circus symposium Kavanagh K. 2023. ‘Introduction’. In Kavanagh, K and Hamer, T (eds) The Really Fantastic and The Fantastically Real: Doing Circus Now. Cardiff: Metamodern Festival, pp.2-4
- Commission for Arts Council England funded publication sharing diverse expressions of UK circus Kavanagh, K. 2020. ‘Getting Rid of the Circus’. In Murphy, L and A’Court Stuart, N (eds.) Circus Is Not The Only Fruit. https://www.circusisnottheonlyfruit.org/2020/08/11/getting-rid-of-the-circus/
- Contribution to a publication of reflections following six months of weekly study circle discussions via Cirkus Syd’s Circus Thinkers Platform. Kavanagh, K. 2020. ‘Thoughts from the Anthropocene’. Circus Thinks. Vol. 1. Reflections 2020. Lund: Cirkus Syd, pp. 3-6.
- Foreword to a book of late 20th Century US circus photography. Kavanagh, K. 2020. ‘Foreword’. In: Anderson, C. Kicking Sawdust. Artron: Daylight, pp. 4-6.
- Reflections on the 5th edition of Fresh Circus, a networking, showcasing and seminar event held in Europe. Kavanagh, K. 2020. ‘Overlapping Circles’. In: Ellingsworth, J. ed. Fresh Circus #5. Paris: Circostrada, pp. 14-16.
- Academic article on new ways to productively approach discussion of circus performance. Kavanagh, K. 2019. Criticism within the circus sector: redressing a power imbalance. Platform 13(1), pp. 64-85.
* ‘Circademic’ = a portmanteau word that combines ‘circus’ with ‘academic’, first coined by Jackie Davis in 2010.