Event overview
Performance Research Forum hosts a range of events, talks and presentations by established and early-career researchers and practitioners in theatre and performance.
‘Lightstreams: migrant health-care workers post-Covid and during the health-care crisis’
Project Funded by CPPE Engagement Fund, University of Essex
As evidenced by a recent report, Vulnerable Migrants’ Wellbeing Project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation/ESRC IAA funds (U. of Birmingham/IRiS), the pandemic has had – and continues to have – a tremendous impact on wellbeing, especially amongst people of ethnic minorities, undocumented migrants and asylum seekers. Little attention has been given to migrant health-care workers, although they represent one third of all the workforce.
Theatre combined with a sociological/ethnographic approach can not only generate new analysis of needs and issues around migration and healthcare but also impact on how migrant health-care workers are considered and bring strategic actions amongst health-care unions and providers. We, the researchers, work with Lightstreams as a case study to understand theatre as a form of social activism in the context of the current post-Covid, post-Brexit health-care crisis and in relation to migrant health-care workers.
Lightstreams is the first and only play that looks at the Covid experiences of first-generation migrants in the UK. This play raises questions about sacrifices and the choices migrant health-care workers (nurses, carers, doctors etc.) had to make during the pandemic. Through creative activism, this play offers a platform to interrogate the most complex health care crisis post-Brexit with healthcare unions and service users in order to work towards some policy shifts.
Participants are invited to attend the scratch-performance at Omnibus Theatre on 12 January.
Book here: https://www.omnibus-clapham.org/lightstreams/
Dr Mary Mazzilli is a Senior Lecturer in Drama and Literature at University of Essex. She has an expertise in Chinese and British drama and literature. Before joining Essex in 2016, Mary worked at Goldsmiths College in the Theatre and Performance Department (2015-2016) and at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2012-2014). She is also a playwright and her plays have been staged in the UK and China. Her projects have been awarded funding from Essex County Council, AHRC, ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, and Arts Council England.
Dr Phoebe Kisubi Mbasalaki is a lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex. Prior to that, she was a post-doctoral research fellow on the GlobalGRACE project (https://www.globalgrace.net) housed at the African Gender Institute (AGI) and the Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies (CTDPS) – University of Cape Town as well as the NGO – Sex Workers Advocacy and Educational Task Force (SWEAT). She was also a lecturer on the gender studies program at the AGI – University of Cape Town. Her research interests are in critical race, gender, class, sexuality, creative activism, public health as well as decolonial thought and praxis.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 7 Feb 2023 | 6:30pm - 8:00pm |
Accessibility
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