Academic staff members in the School of Performing Arts (SPA) maintain active careers as researchers, scholars and artistic practitioners, producing internationally recognised work across a broad range of media both in Malta and abroad. Research in SPA spans the various interconnected fields of practice, theory, history, ethnography and pedagogy, among others. Each of the three Departments (Departments of Theatre Studies, Dance Studies and Music Studies) maintains expertise in its own discipline while engaging in dialogue with the other Departments on practices, concepts and concerns common to the performing arts in general.
Broadly defined thematic areas of research in SPA include: Artistic Practice and Practice Research; Technology in Performance; the Body and Performance Knowledges; Performance Transmission; Community Arts and Performance; Composition and Work Creation; History and Historiography of the Performing Arts, Legacies of Modernism; Oral Histories, Ethnographic and Anthropological Approaches; Politics, Activism, Resistance and Critique.
In association with the School of Performing Arts Community Engagement (SPACE) project, the School of Performing Arts hosts regular public lectures given by leading researchers across the field of performing arts. Further details of past and forthcoming public lectures are available here.
In addition, SPA hosts a series of Research Seminars which has been running since the School’s foundation in 2012. This series provides a forum for research staff in SPA to share and present ongoing and recently published research in a more informal, collegial environment.
The School of Performing Arts welcomes expressions of interest from scholars and practitioners who would like to share their research as part of our Performing Arts Encounters lecture series or to discuss other possibilities of research collaborations and events. For such enquiries, please contact Dr Jeremy Coleman. We look forward to hearing from you!
Access more information on the Annual Conference 2026.
See individual staff profile pages for details of research output and publication.
Photo of SPA Collective Performance 2018 by Rafael Mielczarek
