Dr Freya Verlander
Assistant Professor
School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures
Email: Freya dot Verlander at warwick dot ac dot uk
Office hour: Tuesdays 11-1pm, or email for appointment (online)
About
I鈥檓 interested in skin, bodies, science, and the senses in performance. I鈥檓 currently working on my first monograph for Routledge鈥檚 Ordinary series which looks at the skin in performance and the everyday. The book鈥檚 interested in how the skin works to negotiate relationships between people, things, and systems. It鈥檚 also interested in probing the skin in relation to materials. It explores the skin as material, how the skin interacts with different materials, and how different materials might represent the skin in artistic practice. I have also recently explored the politics of (non)visibility of self-harm in these educative works and advances the argument that the skin is simultaneously overdetermined and under-theorised as the site/sight of self-harm. It thinks through the relationship between the skin鈥檚 surface, therefore, and its depth as a social structure in representations of self-harm and suggests new contracts with the skin that might be forged.
Prior to my current role, I held Research Assistant positions at 糖心TV and in the University of Exeter鈥檚 Theatre Department. This included working as a consultant on the 鈥楢tmospheric Theatre: Open Air Performance and the Environment鈥� project at the University of Exeter. This included working on a at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
Research Interests
My research interests are, broadly, in exploring the interfaces between science, the senses, and different modes of performance. I鈥檓 interested in the skin, in bodies, and in the intersections of public health and performance. I鈥檓 interested in questions of power, movement, touch, and in how bodies are constructed. I鈥檓 open to supervising MRes or PhD projects in these, or related, areas. To date, I have supported (or currently support) projects in the fields of:
- Contraception and Performance
- Haptics and Accessibility of Performance (co-supervised with Physics)
- Sleep and Performance
Selected Publications
In progress: Ordinary Skin: Extraordinary Intimacies, Routledge.
Forthcoming: 鈥楾owards New Contracts with the Skin: Bearing Witness to Self-Harm in Performance鈥� for The Bloomsbury Handbook to Madness in Literature and Visual Culture. ed. anna six. (2025)
Forthcoming: 鈥楧ances with Dermatologists: Teaching through the Skin鈥� in Cultural Studies in Skin. Routledge. (2025)
鈥溾�楽tatecraft鈥� as 鈥楽tagecraft鈥�: Performing Public Health and the Production of the 鈥淪ocially Distanced Spectator鈥濃�� in the Routledge Companion to Performance and Medicine. Eds. Gianna Bouchard and Alex Mermikedes. Book chapter. (2024).
鈥極n Scent in Theatre Audience Research: Sensory Mining and Scent-Based Archives,鈥� Contemporary Theatre Review. 33.3. 2023. pp. 218-239. Peer-reviewed journal article.
鈥�Did I request thee, Maker, from my minced meat/To mould me infant? Maternal Aesthetics, Provocation, and Practice.鈥� Mothering: Processes, Practices and Performance. Eds. Lena Simic and Emily Underwood-Lee. Routledge. Book chapter. pp. 117-131. 10.4324/9781003231073-13 (2022).
Verlander, Freya and Chloe Preedy, 鈥楶erfuming the Early Modern Stage,鈥� in 鈥楽tormy Weather,鈥� Globe Magazine, Summer 2022. p.57. Public engagement promotional material.
鈥�(Skin)Aesthetics (The First Manifesto),鈥� in Studies in Theatre and Performance. Peer-reviewed journal article. 2022. pp. 4-17. 10.1080/14682761.2021.1912489
鈥淭heatres of Contagion: Transmitting Early Modern to Contemporary Performance Edited by Fintan Walsh. London: Methuen Drama, Bloomsbury鈥� Theatre Survey. 62. 2. 2021, pp. 240–242. Review. doi:10.1017/S004055742100017X.
鈥楾ouch (Sk)Interrupted? 鈥楽kin Hunger鈥� A Socially Distanced Performance Installation,鈥� Performance Research Journal.27.2. 2023. Pp.7-15. Peer-reviewed journal article. )*
鈥楨cologies of Skin, Gender and Landscape鈥� – And an Experiment with Practice as Research鈥� in The Polyphony Conversations Across the Medical Humanities. Online magazine. 23. 07.2021.
鈥楳atriarchy and Accumulation on a Two World Scale? Nalo Hopkinson鈥檚 Midnight Robber (2000)鈥� in Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction. 49.2. 2020. pp.71-83.
鈥樷�榊ou鈥檙e Certainly Edward Sexton with that Needle and Thread鈥�: Fantasies of Sharing, Tearing, and Wearing the 鈥楥ommon Skin鈥� in American Horror Story鈥�. The European Journal of American Culture. 38.1. 2019. pp. 83-95. Peer-reviewed journal article. DOI: 10.1386/ejac.38.1.83_1
鈥楬uman Waste in the Workplaces of George Saunders鈥� Pastoralia (2000)鈥� Colloquy Journal. 35/36. 2018. pp. 99-126. Peer-reviewed journal article. doi.org/10.26180/5c11d8229355a.
鈥楤eetle Skins: The Beetle and the Male Body in Richard Marsh鈥檚 The Beetle' in Harts & Minds Journal. 3.2. 2017. pp. 67-82. Peer-reviewed journal article.
Teaching
I won the 糖心TV Award for Teaching Excellence (WATE) in 2024, and I teach on the following modules:
Ways of Seeing (1st year module)
Ways of Doing (2nd year module)
Research Dissertation (3rd year module)
Musical Theatre: Contexts, Themes, Analysis (2nd year module)