My research focuses on contemporary storytelling, Greek tragedy and classical receptions, and performer training.
My newest book explores collaborative platforms for story-led performance, and female storytelling artists as innovators in interdisciplinary creativity. Contemporary Storytelling Performance: Female Artists on Practices, Platforms, Presences was published by Routledge in 2023.
I also hold a grant from the British Academy / Leverhulme Trust to develop my work with storytelling artists. The project 'Researching Non-Appropriatve Repertoires with England's Storytelling Artists' (2023-25) aims to generate strategies to promote ethical, inclusive, and sustainable performance repertoires through innovative research/industry collaboration.
I have supervised several PhD projects to completion, including theses focusing on new approches to actor-training, and the contemporary re-performance of ancient dramas. I am available to discuss potential PhD projects on contemporary storytelling, classical receptions, and related training practices.
Teaching Specialisms:
- Acting
- Actor-Training
- Adaptations of Classical Drama
- Cultural Histories
- Directing
- Ensemble
- Storytelling
University Roles:
- Associate Professor of Drama
- University Research Committee
- University Research and Innovation Steering Group
- Senior Academic Advisor (School of Creative and Performing Arts)
- Research Mentor (School of Creative and Performing Arts)
- Open Research Forum Lead (School of Creative and Performing Arts)
- Year Lead, Third-Year Theatre
Books:
- Harrop, S. (2023), Contemporary Storytelling Performance: Female Artists on Practices, Platforms, Presences. Routledge.
- Dunbar, Z. and Harrop, S. (2018), Greek Tragedy and the Contemporary Actor. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Hall, E. and Harrop, S. (eds) (2010), Theorising Performance: Greek Drama, Cultural History, and Critical Practice. Duckworth.
Articles:
- Harrop, S. (2021), '"No Air Left in Your Lungs": Breathing with Kae Tempest's The Book of Traps and Lessons'. Contemporary Theatre Review 31.1-2.
- Harrop, S. (2018) 'Greek Tragedy, Agonistic Space, and Contemporary Performance'. New Theatre Quarterly 34.2.
- Harrop, S. (2015). ‘Grounded, Heracles, and the Gorgon’s Gaze’, Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics 23.1.
- Harrop, S. (2013). Speech, Silence, and Epic Performance: Alice Oswald's Memorial'. New Voices in Classical Reception Studies 8.
Chapters:
- Harrop, S. (2021), 'Herakles on Chesil Bank: The Archers, Disavowable Classics, and The Small Back Room', in Blanshard, A. & Stafford, E. (eds) The Modern Hercules: Images of the Hero from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century. Brill.
- Harrop, S. (2018) 'Unfixing Epic: Homeric Orality and Contemporary Performance', in Macintosh, F., McConnell, J., Harrison, S. and Kenward, C. (eds) Epic Performances from the Middle Ages into the Twenty-First Century. Oxford.
- Harrop, S. (2018) ‘”It Happens in Ballads”: Scotland, Utopia, and Traditional Song in The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart', in McKerrell, S. and West, G. (eds) Understanding Scotland Musically: Folk, Tradition and Policy. Routledge.
Boards/Networks: The Higher Education Academy (Senior Fellow); The Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford (Research Associate); TaPRA, Theatre and Performance Research Association (Prizes Sub-Committee; Postgraduate Essay Prize Coach); The Women's Classical Committee UK (Steering Group); Equity.