Dr 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, with a particular emphasis on Cultural Democracy.

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)

Currently teaching across the School of Global Humanities and the School of Journalism, Media and Culture, leading Undergraduate modules on Language and Popular Culture and Creative and Cultural Industries. 

I am also leading a new Foundation Year module on Making Meaning: Creativity and Communication.

Other teaching for 2026-27 includes delivering lectures and seminars for the following modules: Media Scholarship; Developing English, History and Society; Discourse; Understanding Communication.

PREVIOUS:

• Module Lead on Mediating Childhood (2024-25)
• Seminar teaching on Language and the Mind; How Language Works 2; Digital Culture; Introduction to Media Audiences; Doing Media Research, Approaches and Methods; 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. 2018-2024
• Guest lecturer at the University of Dance and Circus (DOCH) in Stockholm, Sweden, teaching circus performance analysis to BA and MA students. 2018-2024
• Module Lead on Performance Review and Analysis at the National Centre for Circus Arts in London, UK. 2017-18