Dr Lena Simic

Profile

Biography

Dr Lena Šimić is a Reader in Drama at Edge Hill University, originally from Dubrovnik, Croatia, now living in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Her research areas include contemporary performance practice, political performance, live art, art activism, feminist theatre and performance, and critical arts practice in relation to climate crisis, ecology and environment. A performance practitioner working with the teaching methodologies of ‘embodied practice’ and ‘practice as research’ in performance and theatre studies. Lena has presented her arts practice and research in a variety of academic journals (Performance Research, Contemporary Theatre Review, n.paradoxa, RiDE, Feminist Review, Studies in the Maternal, Journal of the Motherhood Initiative), edited books, and in various arts venues and festivals in the United Kingdom and internationally. Her short play, Three Conversations in collaboration with her sons, Neal and Sid, was commissioned for Climate Change Theatre Action in 2019. Together with Underwood-Lee, she ran the AHRC funded Performance and the Maternal project (2019–2022). Their recent co-authored publications include edited collection Mothering Performance: Maternal Action Routledge (2023), co-authored book Maternal Performance: Feminist Relations Palgrave (2021), “On the Maternal” (2017) Performance Research (22:4) and Manifesto for Maternal Performance (Art) 2016! (2017). Lena has published seven artist books including Maternal Matters and Other Sisters (2009), The Mums and Babies Ensemble (2015), 10 – The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home (2019) and Thirties (2022).

• Maternal Performance
• Three Conversations
• FAN Mothers in Our Fragile Social Network against Climate Change
• Returning to Ourselves: Medea/Mothers' Clothes and Patience one decade on
• My Sea: on the waves of poetics and politics
• Encountering Performing (M)Others: Feminist Maternal Practice in Contemporary Performance