Mary Luckhurst
Mary Luckhurst is a writer, academic, and theatre director. She is Professor of Theatre and Performance and is the first female Head of the School of Arts at the University of Bristol. She is known for her academic and educational work in the arts in universities and the public realm and for her championing of women’s equality and human rights. She is currently working on projects about female performers who challenge the stigmas of ageing, disability and mental health. Academic career. Luckhurst has degrees in both arts and sciences and was educated at Cambridge University (BA (Modern  Languages) and PhD (English)), Middlesex University (MA), and the London School of Economics (Msc). She spent a number of years in her twenties running a theatre company and working as a dramaturg, writer and director before deciding that she wanted to teach in the fields of theatre and arts education. She has worked in both universities and conservatoires. A dual citizen of Britain and Australia, Luckhurst was appointed Professor and Director of Artistic Research and Creative Practice at the University of Melbourne from 2014-2018 on a scheme that hired in 40 world-leading academics and educators at the top  of their fields. From 1998-2014, she was based at the University of York as their first Lecturer in Modern Drama and became the co-initiator and co-founder of the innovative Department of Theatre, Film, TV and Interactive Media. She was named as one of the 50 best teachers in the UK by the Higher Education Academy and has held distinguished visiting professorships at City University of New York, Latrobe, Melbourne, Sydney and Oxford universities.