Team

Emine Fişek is Research Associate in the Institute for Urban and Regional Research (ISR) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. A native of Istanbul, Fişek received her BA in English Literature and Theatre from Swarthmore College, and her PhD in Performance Studies from the University of California-Berkeley.
Fişek’s core research interest is in the relationship between theatre and politics, with special attention to questions of migration, community and memory. Her first book, Aesthetic Citizenship: Immigration and Theater in Twenty-First-Century Paris (Northwestern University Press, 2017) addressed the role played by theatrical performance in how immigration, citizenship, and national identity were addressed in Paris at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Her second book, Theatre & Community (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019) was published as part of the Theatre & Book Series and explored the history of community as an artistic or political ideal in the theatre. Her current research considers the impact that cultural memory, urban transformation and international migration have had on theatre in twenty-first-century Turkey.

Aurélien Bellucci is a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Urban and Regional Research (ISR) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. A native of Metz, he was trained in modern literature at Sorbonne Université and in social sciences at Sciences Po before receiving his PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. His dissertation is entitled Democratic Performances: How Theater Creates the People, it compares different traditions of people’s theaters in Europe, China, and India, and it is based on fieldwork with theatermakers and audiences. Part of his research was published in The Brecht Yearbook and New Theatre Quarterly. Aurélien is also an associate at Harvard’s Asia Center and a lecturer at the American University of Paris.

Clio Unger is a postdoctoral fellow based at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Within THEAGENT, she focuses on cultural memory, urban transformation, and international migration in Berlin. She holds a diploma in dramaturgy from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, an MA in theatre and performance studies from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a PhD from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. Her research focuses on the intersections of performance, political economy, and politics. Her PhD thesis, entitled ‘Contemporary Lecture Performances and the Politics of Knowledge in Cognitive Capitalism’, highlighted the intersections between knowledge production, theatre, and the economic developments that increasingly commodify knowledge, such as the marketisation of education. Her essay ‘Share Your Work: Lola Arias’s Lecture Performance Series and the Artistic Cognitariat of the Global Pandemic’ won the TaPRA Postgraduate Essay Prize and was published in Contemporary Theatre Review (2021). Clio also works as a freelance dramaturg and translator.

Joseph Prestwich is a postdoctoral fellow based at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. Originally from Blackpool, Lancashire, Joseph was awarded a PhD in German and Theatre and Performance Studies from King's College London in 2022. He has worked previously as a Teaching Associate at the University of Cambridge, and as Lecturer in German at King's College London. His first monograph, Staging Germanness in Contemporary British Theatre, is in preparation for publication in 2025 by Legenda. Recent publications include articles in Translation Studies, German Life and Letters, and the Brecht Yearbook. 

Joseph also works as a theatre practitioner and is Assistant Director of ShakeItUp Theatre, an improvisation company based in London. He performs regularly with this company across the UK and Europe, and has taught improvisation in diverse settings, from drama schools to prisons. From 2021 - 2023 he was Project Associate on the Young Vic's INNOVATE project, and he works annually with the German theatre company Theater Frankfurt. He is also Communications Officer for Stonewall FC, the world's most successful LGBTQ+ football club. 

Dr. Regina Lissowska-Postaremczak is a postdoctoral fellow researcher based at the Department of Theater and Media Arts at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, where she earned her PhD in 2020. Holding a Master's degree in Humanities from AMU and a Master's degree in Art from the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, she also lectures at the Department of Dance at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice and at the Department of Dance at the Academy of Physical Education in Poznań. She is the author of "Kinesthetic Strategies in Dance Space" (2023) and numerous theoretical and critical articles on theater, dance, performance, and new media, which have been featured in Polish theater & performance studies journals since 2010. In 2021, she was awarded a creative scholarship by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage for her research in the field of dance and film. She has been awarded research and creative grants of the National Institute of Music and Dance (2013, 2023) and the National Center for Culture (2020). Both as a theater practitioner and as a cultural manager, she has collaborated with institutional theaters (Polish Dance Theatre, Poznań Opera House) as well as numerous non-governmental organizations engaged in cultural activities. As a curator, she specializes in film programs that integrate dance and film, collaborating regularly with institutions such as the Short Waves Festival (since 2014) and the PERFORM Artistic Foundation (since 2018), as well as with numerous festivals and cultural institutions in Europe and North America. She has participated in numerous international artistic and research projects in Poland, Germany, France, Belgium, and Austria. Her primary interest lies in interdisciplinary research at the intersection of performative arts and social sciences, as well as intersections of dance, film, and new media.

Philipp Abel studied ecology and ecosystem sciences at the University of Vienna (2008-2015), specialising in fish ecology. After working in visitor management at the Donau-Auen National Park and Schönbrunn Zoo, he started working at the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press in 2008 and is currently responsible for logistics, sales and marketing. Since October 2023 he is studying Urban and Regional Planning at the Vienna University of Technology and project manager at the Project THEAGENT.