Rate My Professor Suzanne Little

Associate Professor Suzanne Little is Head of Programme for Theatre Studies in the School of Performing Arts, Division of Humanities, at the University of Otago, where she has held faculty positions since February 2006. She earned her PhD from Queensland University of Technology for the thesis 'Framing Dialogues - towards an understanding of the parergon in theatre.' With additional qualifications and professional experience in visual arts and film, Little has worked as an actor, director, and production designer. Prior to Otago, she co-founded two Australian theatre companies, Vena Cava and the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble, serving as co-artistic director of the latter. Currently, she directs the interdisciplinary 'Performance of the Real' Research Theme, has served on the executive of the Australasian Drama Theatre and Performance Studies Association (ADSA) as Vice President, and is a member of the International Federation for Theatre Research (FIRT) and Performance Studies international (PSI). She serves on the board of the Theatre in Health Education Trust, which applies theatre to sexual health education in New Zealand schools. Little convenes conferences and presents research internationally.

Her research specializations encompass framing and critical theory, witnessing in performance, care ethics, refugee representation in theatre, ethics of trauma and violence in performance, actor training, repetition and mobilities, Practice as Research, reflective practice, performance analysis, documentary and verbatim theatre, political performance, and the witness turn. Publications in journals such as Performance Research and Theatre Research International include 'Confessions of a Cannibal: In extremis performance and Theatre of the Real' (2024), 'Unconventional Carers: Children caring in and through performance' (2022), and 'Repeating Repetition: Trauma and Performance' (2015). Key books and chapters feature the co-edited Performance, Resistance and Refugees (Routledge, 2023), 'Refugees, Visual Culture and Theatre: Reinscriptions and Contestations' therein (2023), and 'The Witness Turn in the Performance of Violence, Trauma, and the Real' (2019). Her directorial credits include Shakespeare productions such as As You Like It, King John, Twelfth Night, and works like Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom and Arthur Schnitzler's Anatol and La Ronde. Little's contributions advance theatre studies through interdisciplinary scholarship and practice.