Inaugural Lecture: Professor Nicola Shaughnessy 19th December

Professor Nicola Shaughnessy invites you to her KIASH inaugural lecture on Thursday 19th December at 6pm in the Aphra Theatre (Grimond building), University of Kent.

Valuing Performance: Art or Science?

This lecture considers the role and function of performance as an art form and as a research method. Higher Education funders require academics to measure impact but how can this be assessed in performance? What are its benefits to society?

Drawing upon interdisciplinary collaborations between artists and scientists, I will show how performance can respond to one of the key problems expressed by neuro scientists: ‘the need for a means of accessing human experience’. Performance practice, as I will demonstrate, offers ways of engaging and understanding concepts such as imagination, emotion, empathy, perception and cognition.