Professor Anna McMullan

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Professor (part-time)
- Co-Director of the Beckett International Foundation
Areas of interest
My main research area is the drama of Samuel Beckett, on which I have published three monographs: Theatre on Trial: the later drama of Samuel Beckett (1993) Performing Embodiment in Samuel Beckett's Drama (2010) and Samuel Beckett’s Intermedial Ecosystems(2021), a co-edited volume (Reflections on Beckett), and many essays. I have also published on Irish theatre and performance. I was Principal Investigator on an AHRC-funded project, Staging Beckett (2012-15), which explored the impact of productions of Samuel Beckett's plays on theatre practices and cultures in the UK and Ireland. The project compiled a searchable database and online research resources including a series of interviews.
I am Co-Director of the Beckett International Foundation, which is a charitable trust, and serves the Beckett community through its publications, conferences and other events. It also supports the research and teaching of Beckett's works at all degree levels and in a variety of departments across the University of Reading.
I have published widely on contemporary Irish theatre and performance, on gender and performance and on theatre and conflict. I have taught at Trinity College Dublin and Queen's University Belfast. I was academic Chair of the Belfast-Sarajevo Initiative for the Creative and Performing Arts (2009–11), a student-led series of creative exchanges between artists of both cities and between students of Drama Studies at Queen's and students from the Academy of Performing Arts, University of Sarajevo.
Postgraduate supervision
I welcome enquiries from postgraduate students in any of my areas of interest. I have supervised postgraduate research theses and practice-as-research doctoral projects in Beckett's drama for stage and screen, live art, cultural exchange between Belfast and Sarajevo, performing memory in post-conflict contexts, and many aspects of contemporary Irish theatre and performance.Teaching
- Analysing Theatre and Performance
- Identity, Performance and Culture
Professional bodies/affiliations
- Editorial Board member of The Journal of Beckett Studies
- Editorial Board member of Irish University Review
- Advisory Editor Anthem Studies in Theatre and Performance
- Associate Member of the Centre for Film Aesthetics and Cultures (CFAC).
Publications
- McMullan, A. (2021) Samuel Beckett's intermedial ecosystems: closed space environments across the stage, prose and media works. Cambridge University Press , Cambridge. ISBN: 9781108938990 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108938990
- McMullan, A. (2021) Technology and the voices of the more than human in Samuel Beckett’s All That Fall. In: de Vos, L. , Tanaka, M. , Johnson, N. , (eds.) Beckett's Voices / Voicing Beckett. , 12. Brill , Netherlands. pp. 158-174. ISBN: 9789004468399 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004468382_013
- McMullan, A. and Nixon, M. (2020) Pedagogies of place: Reading. Journal of Beckett Studies , 29 (1). pp. 74-82. ISSN: 0309-5207 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3366/jobs.2020.0285
- McMullan, A. (2020) Samuel Beckett and intermedial performance: passing between. Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui , 32 (1). pp. 71-85. ISSN: 0927-3131 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18757405-03201006
- McMullan, A. and Saunders, G. , eds. (2018) Special issue on staging Beckett and contemporary theatre and performance cultures. Contemporary Theatre Review , 28. Taylor and Francis (1). | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10486801.2017.1405393
- McMullan, A. , Pattie, D. , Nixon, M. , eds. (2017) Staging Beckett at the Margins / Autres scènes beckettiennes. Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui , 29. Brill (2). , Leiden.
- McMullan, A. and Pattie, D. (2017) Introduction: staging Beckett at the margins. Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui , 29 (2). pp. 227-230. ISSN: 0927-3131 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18757405-02902001
- McMullan, A. (2017) Staging Ireland's Dispossessed: Sarah Jane Scaife's Beckett in the City Project. Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui , 29 (2). pp. 361-374. ISSN: 0927-3131 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18757405-02902012
- McMullan, A. (2016) Staging Beckett in Ireland: scenographic remains. In: McTighe, T. and Tucker, D. , (eds.) Staging Beckett in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Bloomsbury Methuen , London. pp. 103-119. ISBN: 9781474240550
- McMullan, A. (2014) Historical legacies and unhomely cultural memories in Brian Friel’s The home place. Nordic Irish Studies , 13 (1). pp. 189-203. ISSN: 1602-124X
- McMullan, A. and McTighe, T. (2014) Samuel Beckett, the Gate Theatre Dublin, and the contemporary Irish independent theater sector: fragments of performance history. Breac: A Digital Journal of Irish Studies , July ISSN: 2372-2231
- McMullan, A. , McTighe, T. , Pattie, D. , Tucker, D. (2014) Staging Beckett: constructing histories of performance. Journal of Beckett Studies , 23 (1). pp. 11-33. ISSN: 0309-5207 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3366/jobs.2014.0084
- McMullan, A. (2014) Designing Beckett: Jocelyn Herbert's contribution to Samuel Beckett's theatrical aesthetics. In: Gontarski, S. , (eds.) The Edinburgh companion to Samuel Beckett and the arts. Edinburgh University Press , Edinburgh. pp. 409-422. ISBN: 9780748675685
- McMullan, A. (2013) Dancing in translation: Irina Brook’s mise en scène of 'Danser à Lughnasa', Jean-Marie Besset’s translation of Brian Friel’s 'Dancing at Lughnasa'. Studies in Theatre & Performance , 33 (2). pp. 211-223. ISSN: 2040-0616 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1386/stap.33.2.211_1
- McMullan, A. (2012) Samuel Beckett's scenographic collaboration with Jocelyn Herbert. Degrés , 149-150 pp. 1-17. ISSN: 0770-8378
- McMullan, A. (2010) Performing embodiment in Samuel Beckett's drama. Routledge Advances in Theatre and Performance Studies , 12. Routledge pp 186. ISBN: 9780415385985
- McMullan, A. (2009) 'The Home Place': unhomely inheritances. Irish Theatre International , 2 (1). pp. 62-68. ISSN: 2009-0870
- McMullan, A. and Wilmer, S. , eds. (2009) Reflections on Beckett: a centenary celebration. Theater: theory/text/performance University of Michigan Press , Ann Arbor. pp 256. ISBN: 9780472116645
- McMullan, A. (2008) History in tatters: bodies and things in Samuel Beckett’s theatre. Etudes Britanniques Contemporaines , 35 pp. 27-37. ISSN: 1168-4917
- McMullan, A. (2007) Samuel Beckett’s theatre: liminal subjects and the politics of perception. The Princeton University Library Chronicle , 68 (1/2). pp. 450-464.
- McMullan, A. (2007) From matron to matrix: gender, authority and (dis)embodiment in Beckett’s Theatre. In: Sihra, M. , (eds.) Women in Irish Drama: A Century of Authorship and Representation. Performance Interventions Palgrave Macmillan , Basingstoke. pp. 97-108. ISBN: 9780230006478
- McMullan, A. (2007) Beckett’s theatre: embodying alterity. In: Ben-Zvi, L. and Moorjani, A. , (eds.) Beckett at 100: Revolving it All. Beckett at 100 pp. 166-176. ISBN: 9780195325485
- McMullan, A. (2007) Mutated bodies: stage performances of Beckett's late prose texts by Mabou Mines (1984) and Gare St. Lazare Players, Ireland (2005). Performance Research , 12 (1). pp. 57-65. ISSN: 1469-9990 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1352816070138081
- McMullan, A. (2006) Performativity, unruly bodies and gender in Brian Friel’s drama. In: Roche, A. , (eds.) Cambridge Companion to Brian Friel. Cambridge Companions to Literature Cambridge University Press , Cambridge. pp. 142-153. ISBN: 9780521853996
- McMullan, A. (2004) Irish/postcolonial Beckett. In: Oppenheim, L. , (eds.) Palgrave Advances in Samuel Beckett Studies. Palgrave Advances Palgrave Macmillan pp. 89-109. ISBN: 9781403903525
- Frost, E. and McMullan, A. (2003) The Blue Angel Beckett on film project : questions of adaptation, aesthetics and audience in filming Beckett’s theatrical canon. In: Ben-Zvi, L. , (eds.) Drawing on Beckett : portraits, performances, and cultural contexts. Assaph Books Drawing on Beckett: Portraits, Performances and Cultural Contexts pp. 215-238. ISBN: 9789659062508
- McMullan, A. and Singleton, B. , eds. (2003) Special issue of Australasian Drama Studies on Performing Ireland. , 43. Australasian Drama Studies
- McMullan, A. and Leeney, C. , eds. (2003) The Theatre of Marina Carr: “before rules was made”. Carysfort Press , Dublin. ISBN: 9780953425778
- McMullan, A. (1993) Theatre on trial: the later drama of Samuel Beckett. Routledge , London. pp 168. ISBN: 9780415052023