Helen Gilbert

Helen’s research for HydroArts centres on performances linking water and indigenous cultures.

Helen Gilbert

Professor of Environmental Arts

Royal Holloway

Helen Gilbert is Professor of Environmental Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London, and co/author of influential books and essays in postcolonial and intercultural theatre. Her current research investigates climate change activism as mobilised through puppetry, site-responsive performance and live arts concerned with environmental justice. She is the project leader of CoastARTS, a multi-country initiative recently funded by HERA–CHANSE  to investigate performance-making engaged with ecocultural crises in coastal zones in the north Atlantic and Caribbean regions. Her earlier collaborative work, including the ERC-funded ‘Indigeneity in the Contemporary World’ project (2009–14), explored Indigenous performance constellations in the Americas, the Pacific, Australia and South Africa. In 2015, she won a Humboldt Prize for lifetime achievements in international theatre and performance studies.

If you would like to become a partner or invite HydroArts to your next research event or performance, please let us know!