Ben Levitas practices an interdisciplinary approach to theatre, in particular integrating theatre history with cultural and political history – with a specialism in Irish studies. His approach is informed by a broad training: after gaining an MA in Modern Literature from Queen Mary, University of London, Ben was awarded his doctorate from the History Faculty, Oxford University, and went on to teach at the School of Politics at Queen's University Belfast before joining the Department of Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths. His first book, The Theatre of Nation: Irish Drama and Cultural Nationalism 1890-1916 was awarded the Michael J. Durkan Prize. Ben also convenes, with Professor Roy Foster (Queen Mary), Dr Lauren Arrington (Liverpool University), and Dr Simon Prince (Canterbury Christchurch) the London Irish Studies Seminar based at the School of Advance Studies, Senate House.
Levitas, Ben. 2017. The Theatre of Modernity. In: Vincent Sherry, ed. The Cambridge History of Modernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 350-370. ISBN 9781107034693
Levitas, Ben. 2016. The Abbey and the Idea of a Theatre. In: Nicholas Grene and Chris Morash, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Theatre. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 41-57. ISBN 9780198706137
Levitas, Ben. 2011. Reading and the Irish Revival, 1891-1922. In: Clare Hutton and Patrick Walsh, eds. The Oxford History of the Irish Book: Volume 5: The Irish Book in English 1891-2000. 5 Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 43-69. ISBN 978-0-19-924911-4
Levitas, Ben. 2009. J. M. Synge: European encounters. In: P. J. Matthews, ed. Cambridge Companion to J. M. Synge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 77-91. ISBN 978-0-521-11010-5
Ben's research focuses on connections between Irish literature, theatre and cultural and political history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. W. B. Yeats is also a specialism. He is interested more generally in the avant-garde, theatrical modernism and connections between theories of performance and performativity. With the aid of a Leverhulme Fellowship, Ben is currently researching his next book, with the working title of Ireland, Theatre and Modernity - a project that seeks to assess the relationship between theatrical innovation and national identity in 20th century Ireland.