Professor Nicola Shaughnessy

Nicola Shaughnessy is Professor of Performance and Academic Co-Director for the Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries. She is a researcher, teacher and consultant working across performance, participatory arts and creative health, with particular interests in neurodiversity, gender and auto/biographical practice.

Since joining Kent she has made significant contributions to curriculum development particularly in terms of applied and socially engaged performance practices as well as leading a series of externally funded interdisciplinary research projects bridging arts, science and health. She has extensive experience in research leadership and programme management, and previously served as Chair of the UK Subject Benchmarking Committee for Drama, Dance and Performing Arts (2015, 2019).

She has been Principal Investigator for four AHRC projects on autistic identities and creative practice: Imagining Autism, Autism Re-Imagined; Playing A/Part (Autism and Gender) and Playing A/Part Online. She has also been Co-Investigator for two UKRI adolescent mental health programmes ATTUNE and CREATE, and on the AHRC project ‘Understanding Online Misogyny.’

Her work has been recognised through commendations including shortlisting for Times Higher Education Research Supervisor of the Year and the Wellcome Trust/AHRC Medical Humanities Leadership Award (2020).

She is co-founder and editor of Methuen’s Performance and Science series and Executive Co-Editor of Creative Arts in Education and Therapy. She consults on neurodiversity within the creative industries, working with organisations including the National Theatre, Audible and the BBC.

She has published widely across performance studies, psychology and health humanities. She studied at the Universities of York (PhD), Cambridge (PGCE) and Hull (MA; BA Hons, First Class).    

Nicola’s research examines how creative and auto/biographical practices generate new forms of knowledge and evidence through embodied and affective processes. Working at the intersection of arts, science and health, she develops interdisciplinary approaches to data assembly, analysis and evaluation. Her work spans performance studies, psychology, education and health humanities, with particular interests in neurodiversity, gender and mental health. Through participatory and practice-based research, she develops frameworks that foreground lived experience while addressing ethics, representation and co-production.

Nicola’s research examines how creative, participatory and auto/biographical practices can generate new forms of knowledge through embodied and affective processes. Working at the intersection of arts, science and health, she develops interdisciplinary approaches to data assembly, analysis and evaluation that move beyond conventional hierarchies of evidence. Her work spans theatre and performance studies, psychology, education and the health humanities, with particular interests in neurodiversity, gender and mental health.

A focus of her work is autism and neurodiversity. Through participatory and practice-based research, she develops multi-modal frameworks that foreground lived experience while addressing ethics, representation and co-production. She contributes to the development of a phenomenology of autism, investigating how sensory, temporal and relational experience can be articulated through creative and digital practices. Autobiography and life writing are also central to her approach, particularly in terms of mental health. Across these contexts, she examines how creative methods function as forms of inquiry, representation and as social engagement, with implications for learning, cultural policy and the creative industries.

Nicola’s teaching focuses on contemporary performance practice and applied and socially engaged theatre. She contributes to Creative Careers and the MA in Performance and Theatre Making, alongside doctoral supervision. Her teaching integrates research, creative practice and industry engagement.    

Nicola has supervised 20 doctoral students to completion. Her supervision is organised around three clusters: (1) Neurodiversity, aesthetics and performance; (2) Participatory arts, ethics and creative health; (3) Performance, cognition and interdisciplinary practice research. She welcomes postgraduate enquiries in all her areas of research interest.    

Nicola contributes to national and international research funding review across arts, health and social sciences. She is a longstanding member of the AHRC Peer Review College and has has acted as Drama expert and Chair for programme reviews at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (2019–2025).

Her consultancy focuses on neurodiversity, creative health and inclusive performance practice. She delivers specialist training for arts organisations, schools and universities on neurodivergent representation and ethical co-production.