معرفی
Dr. Sharanya Murali serves as Associate Dean of Equity and Inclusion and Senior Lecturer in Theatre at Brunel University London, within the School of Arts and Humanities and Department of Theatre, Music and Film/TV. She joined Brunel in 2020 after lecturing at the University of Exeter and Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, bringing interdisciplinary expertise spanning performance studies, urban ethnography, and decolonial theory.
Education:
- PhD in Drama (University of Exeter, split-site with National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore)
- MA in Staging Shakespeare (University of Exeter)
- BA in English Literature (Sophia College, University of Mumbai; minored in French Literature and Philosophy)
Her research interrogates walking as performance-ethnography in South Asian urban spaces through feminist and decolonial lenses, examining intersections of caste, race, and gender in performance cultures. She explores photo-performance, archival practices, and representations in Indian cinema/music, emphasizing anti-racist methodologies and the politics of ingestion in performance art. Her work consistently bridges critical theory with embodied practices, challenging Western-centric frameworks in performance studies.
Publications from 2016-2025 reveal evolving engagement with walking practices, testimony after trauma, and decolonial counter-canon formations across theatre, visual arts, and music. Key themes include urban memory, haptic perception in collaborative art, and gendered labor in photo-performance, predominantly centered on South Asian contexts but with global theoretical implications.
Dr. Murali actively supervises PhD research in feminist performance, urban ethnography, and decolonial practices, while contributing to the academic community as Co-Research Development Officer at TaPRA (Theatre and Performance Research Association). Her research has been supported through invitations to prestigious initiatives like the Harvard Mellon School of Theatre and Performance (2021), funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
As an educator, she teaches playwriting, critical theory, and anti-racism in performance, developing curricula that integrate her research on decolonial pedagogy. Her media engagement includes BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking, demonstrating commitment to public scholarship.
