I am a theatre practitioner, academic and writer who has worked on applied theatre in different contexts (prisons, war zones, and health care) - and I now focus on care aesthetics. This is the exploration of how care itself is a craft or aesthetic practice and a focus on the sensory work of care can transform the way it is practiced and experienced. 

I am currently exploring partnerships with different contexts where care aesthetics might be a useful framework for thinking afresh about the creativity of care and interhuman relations. 

I am Professor of Applied and Social Theatre. I was the founding Director of the TiPP Centre in 1992 (Tipp.org.uk) and founder of In Place of War (inplaceofwar.net) - a project supporting arts programmes in war and disaster zones. I've written widely on applied theatre, socially-engaged arts and theatre in conflict and humanitarian disaster contexts. My books include 'Performance Affects' (2009), 'Humanitarian Performance' (2014) and 'Care Aesthetics' (2022). In 2021 I edited 'Performing Care' with Amanda Stuart Fisher and in 2025 published 'Care Aesthetics and the Arts' with Kate McGuire-Rosier and Réka Polonyi. I am currently researching the relation between art and care, have completed a three year AHRC project on care aesthetics and now edit the Routledge Studies in Care Aesthetics series. 

Previous teaching: Undergraduate: Stages in Conflict/ Performance and War; Courses on Augusto Boal and the Theatre of the Oppressed; Prison Theatre; Theatre with refugee and asylum seeking communities; Theatre, Performance and Care. Postgraduate: Options on the MA in Applied Theatre. 

I have supervised successful PhD projects in the following areas - theatre in war, theatre and humanitarianism, theatre and drug use, community theatre/applied theatre. I am open to PhD enquiries in any areas that map onto my research expertise. 

I have researched performance and war, applied theatre and performance and care. My current work on care aesthetics is particularly focused on collaborations with colleagues in dementia care, and research exploring the aesthetics of care in contexts of older people and health. My new work is examining how care aesthetics engages with other aspects of health and social care - and I am open to collaborations with health and social care practitioners and researchers in different health/care contexts.