Dr Sophie Quirk

Sophie’s research centres on comic performance and the way that comedy shapes our world. She has been teaching at Kent since 2007 and is a former Kent student, having completed both her BA and PhD here. She is currently the project lead for Safer Backstage, which works with comedians and others to improve safeguards against harassment and assault in live comedy.

Sophie teaches modules on comic and popular performance, as well as performance design and technologies. She also manages the Creative Project module, where students use knowledge gained across their degree to create a show of their choice and perform it as part of a public festival. 

Sophie’s recent work has been focused on industry structures in live comedy. In particular, she examines the barriers to diversity and inclusion in stand-up and how comedians are tackling these.

She has always been interested in the social and political importance of comedy. Her first book Why Stand-up Matters: How Comedians Manipulate and Influence (2015), explores how the craft of stand-up comedy can shape audience response and influence societal attitudes. The Politics of British Stand-up Comedy: The New Alternative (2018) explores the way that politics and alternative comedy evolved together in the 21st century. Following these projects, she published a series of chapters and articles which explored how specific comedy clubs constructed an ethos which enabled them each to pursue their artistic and ethical goals.

Sophie has also written articles on the use and impact of comedy in other contexts, including within museums and by novelty election candidates. She is regularly interviewed about the importance of comedy for radio, TV and podcasts.

DRAM4003 Popular Performance and Citizenship

DRAM5001 Performance Design and Technologies

DRAM6005 Creative Project