About

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Dr Rachel Hann is Associate Professor of Performance and Design at Northumbria University, Newcastle. She researches cultures of scenography, climate crisis, and transness. Rachel is also a former Chair of the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA).

'Beyond Scenography’ (Routledge, 2019) is Rachel’s first monograph and was shortlisted for the Prague Quadrennial 2019 Best Publication Prize. It provides the first theory of ‘scenographics’ as the place orientating traits of staged material cultures: from gardening to visual merchandising, installation art to theatre. Rachel has also published chapters & peer-reviewed articles on subjects such as costume politics, heritage visualization, practice research, & the performativity of architecture.

In 2023, Rachel was awarded an AHRC Fellowship for the project 'Trans Performance Now: Glitching cisgenderism'. This 2-year study will centre on investigations of trans and nonbinary approaches to performance making, as well as the cultural standpoint of 'transness' more generally. Rachel's work on trans performance to date spans arguments for 'atmospherics' as nonbinary stage aesthetics and 'gender-assemblages' to analyse the more-than-human practices of gendering. The overall objective of this ongoing enquiry is to platform the vitality of trans and nonbinary experiences in understanding the impact of cisgenderism on artists, audiences, and academics. 

In 2013, Rachel co-founded the biennial conference & exhibition Critical Costume. This international research network has since expanded with international events in 5 countries and 3 continents. Rachel led a number of Critical Costume's core activities including co-convening the first and third main conferences, co-editorship of a special issue of Scene (Intellect) & writing the organisation’s first constitution. Her work in the formation of this network was shortlisted for the TaPRA Early Career Prize 2017 for 'leadership in the areas of costume and practice research'.

Rachel is currently supervising several PhD projects. Examined PhDs: 7 at Royal College of Art, University College London, Brunel University, Goldsmiths, University of Wollongong, Southern Queensland University, and Surrey (as internal). 

Rachel welcomes applications for conventional & practice-as-research PhD proposals within the fields of scenography, performance in an era of climate crisis, trans* and non-binary performance, twentieth-century modernism, costume, practice research, the digital humanities (virtual archaeology), & architecture.

In terms of university leadership, Rachel has held the roles of (acting) Associate Dean (2016-2017) and thereafter Deputy Associate Dean (2017 - 2020) in the founding years of the Surrey Doctoral College. She was also the Director of Postgraduate Research for the Guildford School of Acting (2016 - 2020) having previously held the same role for the School of Arts (2015 - 2016). 

In 2022, Rachel was confirmed as Chair of TaPRA in coalition with Prof. Royona Mitra and Dr Broderick Chow. Previously, she was an Executive Officer (2013-2018) for TaPRA and a co-convenor of the Scenography working group (2010-2013).