Julia Prest

Prof Julia Prest is the Director of Research and Professor of French and Caribbean Studies at the University of St Andrews' School of Modern Languages. Her work bridges early-modern French theatre and colonial Caribbean performance history. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge following studies at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on enslaved people's engagement with colonial Saint-Domingue's theatre, disability representation in French court ballet, and cross-cultural performance practices. Prest has pioneered digital projects like the trilingual Theatre in Saint-Domingue database (supported by British Academy/Leverhulme Trust) and founded the Colonial-Era Caribbean Theatre and Opera Network (funded by Royal Society of Edinburgh).

Teaching innovations include the award-winning Translating French Opera course and the Colonial Slave Colony Theatre module. Prest's 2023 monograph Public Theatre and the Enslaved People of Colonial Saint-Domingue redefines understandings of slavery's centrality to theatre history, winning the 2024 Literary Encylopedia Book Prize. Her work informs contemporary performances like Catherine Bisset's Placeholder (Dundee Fringe Award 2024), which reimagines historical figures like Saint-Domingue performer Minette.

• Research Grants: British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, RSE Network Grant
• Key Projects: Theatre in Saint-Domingue digital archive, Colonial-Era Caribbean Theatre Network
• Teaching Awards: Shortlisted THE Most Innovative Teacher 2016, BSECS Teaching Prize 2025

Her interdisciplinary approach integrates archival research, performance analysis, and digital humanities to recover marginalized voices in theatre history. Current projects explore disability in early-modern performance and collaborative methodologies for understudied Caribbean materials.