Dr Dani Abulhawa | داني ابوالهوى

Profile

I am an artist-academic working across performance, public space, and socially engaged practice, with a particular focus on Palestinian theatre and testimony-led performance. I joined the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds in 2021, following academic posts at Sheffield Hallam University (9 years) and the University of Chester (4 years).

My doctoral research explored women’s access to public urban space through the lens of play, developed from over two decades of experience in skateboarding. This embodied enquiry continues to shape my collaborative work.

In parallel, my heritage as a Palestinian artist has informed a body of practice research investigating the lived experience of colonial violence and restrictions of movement. This strand of my work sits within a wider research interest in Arab performance traditions as a source of socially engaged practice and cultural resistance to erasure.

Research interests

My research explores how performance can bridge empathetic gaps and support social and political change, often working through testimony, somatically-informed movement, choreography, and audio-visual practice. I work within the tradition of Practice Research, creating performance works, installations and collaborative projects that respond to lived experience and social conditions. I’m particularly interested in how these forms can amplify marginalised voices, engage audiences emotionally, and reframe dominant narratives—especially in relation to gender, space, and representations of Palestine.

Over the past decade, I’ve led and contributed to a range of projects that explore embodied knowledge in public and participatory contexts. These include Voices of Resilience (HOME, Barbican, Edinburgh International Book Festival), a performance based on Palestinian testimony; Skatepark Allyship, an audio play developed from research on gender and skateboarding; and Drift Tricks, a collaborative sculpture commission developed with young people in Plymouth.

I co-founded Accumulations, a studio collective for somatic and choreographic research, and continue to support artist development through peer-led workshops and mentorship. Across all of my work, I’m interested in how artistic process can generate more inclusive forms of knowledge, participation, and cultural memory.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Plymouth, 2015
• PGCert Learning & Teaching in HE, University of Chester, 2007
• MA, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2006
• BA (Hons), University of Northampton, 2005

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Student education

I teach on undergraduate Theatre and Performance programme, and the Postgraduate Applied Theatre and Intervention.

Current postgraduate researchers

• Bev Adams