Emma Cox

Emma Cox is an Associate Professor and Dr Reader in the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance at Royal Holloway, University of London. She served as Head of Department from 2021 to 2024. Her research focuses on cultural production and public engagement related to forced migration, including performance, ritual, social activism, humanitarianism, and visual culture. She also explores cultural histories of biological and digital remains, addressing themes like asylum seeking, colonialism, and medicine.

Her major works include co-editing Refugee Imaginaries: Research Across the Humanities (2020) and contributing to Performance and Migration (2021), a collaboration with Digital Theatre+ and Routledge. She has authored books such as Performing Noncitizenship (2015) and Theatre & Migration (2014). Her research aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals addressing global challenges like poverty and inequality.

Emma supervises doctoral students in migration studies, social activism, racialization, humanitarianism, postcolonialism, and contemporary Shakespearean performance, particularly Indigenous or postcolonial interpretations.

She co-led the Performance and Asylum: Embodiment, Ethics, Community project (2006–2007), funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, exploring intersections between performance, asylum seekers, and community engagement.

Her work spans interdisciplinary collaborations, including studies of refugee representation at sea, biomedical ethics in performance, and the political dimensions of theatrical border narratives.