Melissa Merchant

I am a Senior Lecturer in English & Theatre, as well as Associate Dean Learning & Teaching in the School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences. My most recent research has been divided between contemporary performativity, theatre history and Shakespearean adaptations, including Restoration adaptations and popular culture appropriations. I have published in Oxford Bibliographies, Continuum, Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, Journal of Intercultural Studies, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, The Seventeenth Century, Actes des Congrès de la Société Française Shakespeare, Outskirts, and M/C Journal. I have also contributed co-authored chapters to Liminal Diasporas: Contemporary Movements of Humanity and the Environment, Difficult Death, Dying and the Dead in Media and Culture (2023) and The Routledge Companion to Disability and the Media (2020). Additionally I co-edited Performing Identity in the Era of COVID-19 (2023). My current research projects include an examination of persistent inaccuracies in published histories of Restoration actresses, Shakespeare's enduring cultural capital, negotiated assessment in university classrooms, and a practice-led research exploration of contemporary re-working of original practices Shakespeare. I am also a theatre practitioner, bringing together theory and practice as a director, writer and actress. My work explores contemporary and cross-cultural approaches to Shakespeare and I have performed in collaborations in Southeast Asia in partnership with the University of Malaya and the Temple of Fine Arts, Malaysia.