Katharine Kavanagh

(she/her)

PhD, FHEA

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

• Circus Studies
• (Critical) Discourse Analysis
• Corpus Linguistics
• Evaluation
• Arts Criticism

I also have an underlying interest in communication that bridges difference in value systems, particularly in education and public media.

Publication

Chapter: 

• Kavanagh, K. 2026. Corpus Linguistics and Media Discourse. In Nesi, Hilary and Milin, Petar, eds. International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (Third Edition), Vol. 11 Elsevier, pp. 502-506

Article:

• Kavanagh, K. (2025). A Gap to be Bridged: Communicating the value in UK circus audience experience’. Circus: Arts, Life and Sciences, 4(2).
• Kavanagh, K. 2019. Criticism Within the Circus Sector: Redressing a Power Imbalance.  In Platform 13(1), p.64-85

Book review:

• Routledge Companion to Audiences and the Performing Arts, In Cultural Trends, 32:4, 2023. 443-447 (Co-authored with Hannah Griffiths, Simon Piening, Beth Prevor, Lizzie Ridley & Serena Slack-Robins)
• Female Aerialists in the 1920s and Early 1930s: Femininity, Celebrity and Glamour, Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2022. 196 pp. Kate Holmes. In Circus: Arts, Life, and Sciences 1(1), 2022.
• Circus as Multimodal Discourse: Performance, Meaning, and Ritual. By Paul Bouissac. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Pp. 216 + 38 illus. £80 Hb; £79.99 eb; £24.99 Pb.The Greatest Shows On Earth: A History of the Circus. By Linda Simon. London: Reaktion Books, 2014. Pp. 296 + 136 illus. £29/$40 Hb. In Theatre Research International 41(1) Mar 2016, p.92-93 
• Contemporary Street Arts in Europe: Aesthetics and Politics. By Susan C. Haedicke. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Pp. xiii + 228 + 8 illus. £53 Hb. In Theatre Research International 40(1) Mar 2015, p.118-119 

Symposium

• The Metamodern Circus, 26th May 2023. NoFit State Circus, Cardiff. 

Documentation available at https://thecircusdiaries.com/the-metamodern-circus/.

Presentations

Academic conferences:

• 'A  new approach to analysing qualitative evaluation data using the UCREL Semantic Analysis System (USAS), at British Association of Applied LInguistics (BAAL) 59th Annual Conference, 1-3 Sept 2026, Aston University 
• 'Things That Make Us Go Ooh... (Why We Keep Rolling Up to the Circus)', at Corpus Linguistics 2023, 3-6 Jul 2023, Lancaster University
• 'Opportunity in the Abyss: growing a critical culture of circus', at Platform Symposium: On Criticism, 23 Nov 2018, Central School of Speech and Drama, London
• 'Overcoming Academic Otherness - experiments in integration', at Circus and Its Others II, 27-29 Aug 2018, Prague
• 'Circus and Criticism', at Theatre and Fandom, 7 July 2017, University of Bristol

Invited speaker:

• 'A Metamodern View on Circus', Metamodern Theatre Symposium, 19 Nov 2024, University of East London
• 'Aesthetic Experience as a Dramaturgical Driver?', 24 Oct 2024, Circus Today: Aesthetics, Politics and Technology series. Sztuka Cyrku, Lublin, Poland
• 'Circus and Metamodernism', 19 Dec 2023, New Horizons Summit. Lund, Sweden.
• 'Doing and seeing the circus differently: formats, norms, expectations', 20 May 2022, Think Circus! conference, CircusNext. Paris, France.
• 'Introduction to the Contemporary Circus: Studies and Spectacle', Festival of Creative Learning, 22 Feb 2018, University of Edinburgh (School of Art)

Teaching

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

• Module Lead at Cardiff University, School of Journalism, Media and Culture (Mediating Childhood). 2024-25
• Teaching Associate at Cardiff University, School of English, Communication and Philosophy (Understanding Communication; Language and the Mind; How Language Works 2) and School of Journalism, Media and Communication (Digital Culture; Introduction to Media Audiences; Doing Media Research: Approaches and Methods; Creative and Cultural Industries; Media and Gender; Advertising and Consumer Society; Representations). 2019-
• Visiting Lecturer at Circomedia in Bristol, UK, teaching circus history, context and and criticality to BA and MA students. 2018-
• Guest lecturer at the University of Dance and Circus (DOCH) in Stockholm, Sweden, teaching circus performance analysis to BA and MA students. 2018-
• Module Lead (Performance Review and Analysis) at the National Centre for Circus Arts in London, UK. 2017-18