Skip to main content
School of the Arts
  1. School of the Arts
  2. People
  3. Academic and research staff
  4. Drama

Professor Fintan Walsh

Fintan

Head of School, School of the Arts | Professor of Arts

Email: fintan.walsh@qmul.ac.uk
Room Number: ArtsOne Building, room 2.11

Profile

I joined Queen Mary as Head of the School of the Arts in October 2026. I am delighted to lead such a diverse and ambitious School, united by a shared commitment to the transformative power of arts and humanities research, education, creative practice and cultural partnership in London, across the UK and globally. I believe that the arts and humanities are vital sources of knowledge, skills, connection and possibility, which is what motivates me to support their flourishing and champion their value.

Throughout my career, I have led initiatives to strengthen the contributions of the arts and humanities within Higher Education and the communities it serves. Prior to joining Queen Mary, I was the founding Head of the School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication at Birkbeck, University of London, where I served on the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Executive Committee, the University Leadership Group and the University Delivery Board (2023-2026). I was founding Director of Birkbeck Creative Practice Lab (2023), Director of Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre (2014-2025), Director of BiGS (Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality) (2018-2023), and Acting Director (2021) and steering committee member (2018-2023) of Birkbeck Institute for Social Research. I initiated and led the university’s first Arts and Culture Strategy (2024-2030) and its first School-wide Employability initiative (2023). I have developed and directed a number of academic programmes, including with external partners. In 2023, I was awarded Birkbeck's Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

I worked at Queen Mary (2011-2012) and at Trinity College Dublin, where I held an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2009-2011). I have also held visiting positions at Freie Universität Berlin, University College Dublin and Helsinki University.

Research

Research Interests:

My research engages a range of contemporary arts and cultural practices, in particular theatre and performance, and how they intersect with digital practices, new writing, installation, socially engaged arts and live art. Working collaboratively with academics, artists and industry partners, I develop projects that connect scholarship with creative practice and cultural engagement. My research clusters around four sometimes overlapping areas of inquiry: the art and culture of grief;  post-pandemic cultural practices; queer arts and culture; medical and health humanities, including psychosocial issues. Across these topics, I am interested in how the arts function as containers of injury and loss, as well as sites of reparation through collective response and action. The work has been funded by Wellcome Trust/Birkbeck ISSF,  Bloomsbury Colleges, OSUN, CHASE (AHRC) and Irish Research Council.  My current research examines how contemporary arts and culture reimagine embodiment, social life and place following the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on the intersections of technological innovation, cultural production and collective loss.

My research leadership includes editorial work and contributions to professional organisations. I am the founder and Senior Editor of the series Elements in Contemporary Performance Texts, co-edited by Caridad Svich and Duška Radosavljević, and published by Cambridge University Press. With Maria Delgado and Maggie Gale, I am co-editor of Theatre: Theory – Practice – Performance, published by Manchester University Press. I was Senior Editor (2018-2021) and Associate Editor (2015-2019) of Theatre Research International and currently serve on the advisory boards of Contemporary Theatre Review and Theatre Research International. I was an executive committee member of the International Federation for Theatre Research (2019-2021) and have been a member of AHRC’s Peer Review College since 2017.

Publications

Select publications

Books:

Edited volumes:

Edited journals:

  • Theatre Research International 44.1 (2019) - 46.3 (2021) as Senior Editor.
  • With Catherine Silverstone, Performance Research: ‘On Affirmation,’ 19.2 (2014).
  • Performing Ethos: ‘Queer Publics,’ 2.2 (2012).

Select articles:

Select chapters:

  • 'Alternative Miss Ireland,' in A Queer Scrapbook: Britain and Ireland since 1945, eds. Justin Bengry, Matt Cook, Rebecca Jennings and E. J. Scott, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2026), pp. 124-126.
  • ‘Pathogenic Performativity: Urban Contagion and Fascist Affect,’ in The Cambridge Companion to Theatre and Science, ed. Kirsten E. Shepherd-Barr (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), pp.101-115.
  •  ‘Contagious Performance: Between Illness and Ambience,’ [Introduction] in Theatres of Contagion: Transmitting Early Modern to Contemporary Performance, ed. Fintan Walsh [Methuen Drama Engage] (London: Methuen Drama 2020), pp. 1-20.
  • ‘Viral Hamlet: History, Memory, Kinship,’ in Theatres of Contagion: Transmitting Early Modern to Contemporary Performance, ed. Fintan Walsh [Methuen Drama Engage] (London: Methuen Drama, 2020), pp. 23-40.
  • ‘On Generous Performance,’ in It’s All Allowed: The Performances of Adrian Howells, eds. Deirdre Heddon and Dominic Johnson (London: Intellect, 2016), pp. 232-246.
  •  ‘Pride, Politics and the Right to Perform,’ in Theory on the Edge: Irish Studies and the Politics of Sexual Difference, eds. Noreen Giffney and Mira Hird (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), pp. 105-122.
  • ‘Mourning Sex: The Aesthetics of Queer Relationality in Contemporary Film,’ in Viewpoints: Theoretical Perspectives on Irish Visual Texts, ed. Claire Bracken and Emma Radley (Cork: Cork University Press, 2012), pp. 215-228

Supervision

I am an experienced supervisor and examiner of theatre, performance, creative-critical and practice PhD projects. My PhD students have been funded by CHASE/AHRC, ESRC, Bloomsbury Colleges and University of London. Current or recently supervised projects focus on digital culture, feminist playwriting and performance; cultural production and pandemic preparedness; chemsex and autofiction; autism, neurodiversity and performance; masculinity and Theatre of the Oppressed; mental illness and contemporary theatre; Sarah Kane and psychic life. I welcome inquiries from prospective PhD students on a range of topics that may include:

  • Cross-disciplinary arts and digital culture
  • Medical and health humanities and psychosocial issues
  • Queer arts and cultural practices
  • Modern and contemporary drama, theatre and performance

I have examined PhD projects nationally and internationally, including at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, University College Dublin, De Montfort University, University of Brighton, University of Leeds, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, University of Sydney, University of Helsinki, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Trinity College Dublin and University of East Anglia.

Public Engagement

By collaborating with artists, creative industries and academics across disciplines, I aim to open up institutional spaces, encourage the sharing of knowledge, skills and resources, and build meaningful connections with diverse audiences and communities.

I have organised or co-organised numerous workshops, symposia and international conferences, including Performance Studies International (2024, by partnering with the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama), Performing Pandemic Grief: The Arts of Losing (2022), Contagious Theatre: Infectious Performance (2017) and The Irish and the City (for the Irish Society for Theatre Research, 2013).

I have delivered keynotes, invited lectures and workshops at conferences, symposia and festivals including the Universität Konstanz, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the University of Cambridge, the University of Warwick, the Courtauld Institute of Art, the University of Helsinki, Queen’s University Belfast, University College Dublin, Royal Holloway, as well as LÓKAL – International Theatre Festival Reykjavík, the Freud Museum, Dublin Theatre Festival, the Arcola Theatre and Synge Summer School.

Back to top