Dr Laura Bissell (she/her) is an Athenaeum Research Fellow and Lecturer in Contemporary Performance Practice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Laura is co-chair of the RCS Sustainability Committee. 

Laura recently co-edited and authored three books: Performance in a Pandemic with Dr Lucy Weir (Routledge, 2021), Making Routes: Journeys in Performance 2010-2020 (Triarchy, 2021) with Dr David Overend and Bubbles Reflections on Becoming Mother, (Luath, 2021). Laura was a visiting lecturer on the MRes in Creative Practices programme at Glasgow School of Art from 2012-18 and has taught on the Transart Institute MFA in Berlin. She has a PhD (The Female Body, Technology and Performance: Performing a Feminist Praxis, University of Glasgow), an MPhil by Research (The Posthuman Body in Performance, University of Glasgow), and a first-class MA (Hons) degree in English Literature and Theatre Studies (University of Glasgow). Laura has a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Arts Education and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

She worked at the University of Glasgow in the Theatre Studies department as a Lecturer prior to her appointment at RCS. Laura is currently External Examiner for the MA in Contemporary Performance Practice at the University of Salford and has previously been External Examiner for European Theatre Arts at Rose Bruford College. Laura has had her poetry, creative writing and academic writing published in journals and anthologies. 

Research Interests 

Laura’s research interests include contemporary performance practices; technology and performance; feminist performance; ecology and performance; interdisciplinary performance and performance and journeys. Laura has presented her research on contemporary practices at conferences nationally and internationally and she has had her work published in the International Journal of Performance Art and Digital Media, The Body, Space Technology Journal, Studies in Theatre and Performance, The Scottish Journal of Performance and Contemporary Theatre Review. 

Recent Publications

  • Performance in a Pandemic, co-edited with Dr Lucy Weir. Routledge, November 2021. 
  • Making Routes: Journeys in Performance 2010-20, co-authored with Dr David Overend. Triarchy, September 2021. 
  • Performance Research and Pedagogy: Inviting in the Unknown co-authored with Sarah Hopfinger. Media Practice and Education Volume 23 Issue 1, 2021. 
  • Training Artists in Times of Crisis, co-authored with Gary Gardiner, Sarah Hopfinger and Rachel O’Neill. Performance Research 25:8 Training Utopias, August 2021. 
  • Landscaping with Beavers. Ecologies of Practice RUUKKU 14, June 2020. 
  • Tidal spaces: choreographies of remembrance and forgetting. Cultural Geographies in Practice, May 2020. 
  • Liquidscapes: The Sea and Self. Liquidscapes Richard Povall. Artearth, 2019. 
  • There Is Such a Thing: Feminist Mimesis in Contemporary Performance in the UK. Contemporary Theatre Review Volume 28 Number 4, 522-536, January 2019. 

Research Student Supervision

  • Doctoral supervisor for Isla Cowan: Ecological Consciousness in Contemporary Scottish Theatre (SGSAH studentship with University of Glasgow). 
  • Doctoral supervisor for Maria Braender: Eco-queer world making: sensitizing and performing with (more-than-humxn) multiperspectivity. 
  • Doctoral supervisor for Aby Watson: Disordering Dance: Dyspraxia and Dance, RCS. 
  • Doctoral supervisor for Mona Bozdog: Connecting Performance and Play: Establishing Interdisciplinary Design Methods for the Development of Video Games and Performance (Applied Research Collaborative Studentship) with RCS, NTS and University of Abertay (completed June 2018). 

Membership of Professional Bodies/External Posts

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy 
  • External Examiner for MA Contemporary Performance Practice at University of Salford 
  • Qualified Hatha Yoga Instructor (Balance, accredited by Yoga Alliance Professionals) 
  • Mental Health First Aid Qualification (MHFA England)