Dr Simon Dodi

BA, MA, PhD
Job title
Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies
Simon Dodi
Orcid ID
0000-0002-3232-5593
Social media
Institutional Repository

Profile

I am a lecturer, researcher and museum learning producer from London.

At Central, I work part-time as a Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies. I teach across the fields of applied theatre, performance studies and historiographies, solo performance practice, and queer studies. I hold a practice-based PhD from Central examining male camp identity in British popular performance. My doctoral thesis focused on the work of Kenneth Williams, Frankie Howerd and Larry Grayson and combined archival research alongside queer strategies of performance reenactment and queer historiography. My ongoing research interests remain in this field. I’m currently continuing to research popular queer performance histories as well as explore practice-based methods of queer historical enquiry. I’m interested in both histories of queer performance and how performance/practice might enable queer historical research.

I have shared my research a national and international conferences (including TaPRA and IFTR).

Beyond my own work, I have a keen interest into how other practitioners work with collections and archival based work within their creative practice, which feeds into my work beyond Central. Alongside lecturing, I currently work as the Senior Producer for Residencies at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. In this role, I help manage and lead on the strategy the museum’s artist in residence programme. I’m currently working on the V&A x Adobe Creative Residency Programme, which has expanded our programme to reach underserved communities from our core audiences (Schools, Families and Young People) in London and the UK. In this role, I’m interested in how artists make our collections accessible to a range of audiences through creative and interdisciplinary ways.

Areas of Expertise

  • Practice-based Research
  • Solo Performance Making
  • Queer Studies (Theory, Histories)
  • Camp Performance, Theories and Histories
  • British Popular Culture and Performance

Key Publications

Forthcoming (2025) ‘Carry on Drag: Cross-dressing and the queer legacies of the Carry On franchise’ in Sterk, Garjan, Edward, Mark & Farrier, Stephen. eds. 2025 The Routledge Companion to Drag (London: Routledge)

Forthcoming (2024) ‘Lip-synching for (some) life: Researching Queer/Camp Bodies through Practice Based Methods’ in Baston, Kim & Price, Jason. eds. 2024. Researching Popular Entertainment (London: Routledge)

2021. ‘Camp Can Be Such a Drag: Approaches to Understanding Camp and Drag’ in Edward, Mark & Farrier, Stephen. eds. 2021. Drag Histories, Herstories & Hairstories (London: Bloomsbury), pp. 83-96.

Register of Interest

Nothing to declare.