RESEARCH & SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES

My research addresses how popular entertainment, heritage performance, and commemorative festivals reflect and shape societal change. I am particularly interested in investigating "performative publics," examining the public's manifestations of national, embodied, and collective identity through popular entertainment such as parades, national festivals, social dance, theatre spectatorship and heritage performance.

Monograph:

-Culture War: Commemoration, Controversy and the Contemporary Abbey Theatre, (Peter Lang Ireland, 2011)

 Journal Articles:

“Theatres in the Dark: COVID-19s Impact on Digital Performance, Advocacy, and the Online Public Sphere in the UK Theatre Industry”, in Theatre and Performance During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Editors: Krpič, Tomaž.in collaboration with The Association of Theatre Critics and Researchers of Slovenia (DGKTS), The Festival Borštnikovo Srečanje (SNG Maribor) and the Faculty of Social Sciences Publishing House, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 15 May 2021

Maples, Holly and Dima, Mariza 'Affectual Dramaturgy for Augmented Reality Immersive Heritage Performance.' Body, Space and Technology, 20 (1). 25 - 36. (January 2021).

-“The Erotic Voyeur: Sensorial Engagement in Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man”, Journal of Contemporary Drama in English, v.4, issue 1, May 2016

-“Embodying Resistance: Gendering Public Space in Ragtime Social Dance”, New Theatre Quarterly, v. 28, issue 3, August 2012, pp. 243-259.

 Book Articles:

Performing Cultural Trauma: The 1980 'A Sense of Ireland' Festival", in Rhona Trench, ed.,   Staging Thought: Essays on Irish Theatre, Practice and Scholarship, (Peter Lang, 2012)

“The Past is Myself: The Politics of Commemoration and the Irish National Theatre Society,” in Oona Frawley, ed., Memory Ireland, (Syracuse University Press, 2010)

“Parading Multicultural Ireland: Identity Politics and National Agenda’s in the 2007 St. Patrick’s Festival,” in Sara Brady and Fintan Walsh, eds. Performing at the Crossroads: Critical Essays on Performance Studies and Irish Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009 )

“Parading Memory: The Production of Commemoration in Contemporary Ireland” Performance of Violence, ed. Lisa Fitzpatrick (Carysfort Press, 2009)

Performance Based Research

Breaking the Silence: Abolition and the Slave Trade, 2019- 2020 –immersive heritage performance at historic churches across the UK with connections to the 18th century slave trade. (Being Human festival Nov. 2019, UK Tour to 10 heritage sites June-July 2020)

Viking: Rediscover the Legend: Norwich Castle Museum, Norwich UK 2019 (REF SUBMISSION and IMPACT CASE STUDY)

-Drama Lead for interactive exhibition creating gallery-based immersive theatre experiences, de-colonizing the museum tours, public workshops, mixed reality storytelling experiences, and collaborative arts projects with the £745K HLF Kick the Dust youth project .

Paston Footprints Project: Norfolk, UK 2018-2020 (REF SUBMISSION and IMPACT CASE STUDY)

-Drama Lead for Heritage Lotter Fund project in rural Norfolk with the Paston Heritage Society including a number of immersive performances at heritage sites across Norfolk (including Mannington Hall, Oxnead Hall, Norwich, and the Norwich Castle Museum).

Forthcoming:

“Breaking the Silence: The British Slave Trade in Performance” In Palgrave Handbook on Theatre and Migration, eds. Stephen Wilmer and Yana Meerzon, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).

Maples H. ‘Touching Past Lives: Sensorial Spectatorship in Heritage Performance’, in Snyder-Young, Dani & Omasa, Matt (eds), Researching Audience Impact, (Routledge, 2022).

Touching Past Lives: Immersive Heritage Performance, H. Maples and K. Smyth eds. (Routledge, Forthcoming)

Maples, H. ‘Revealing Sensations: Internationalism, Scandal, and the Salome Craze’, in Paul Fryer (eds)., 19th Century Theatrical Blockbusters, (Macfarland, 2022)

ACADEMIC GRANTS AND AWARDS:

UKRI ESRC COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant, 2020-2022: £550,000, Primary Investigator on the Economic, Social, and Cultural Impact of COVID-19 on UK Independent Arts Workers

Arts Council Project Grant, 2020: £14,500, Primary Investigator (grant to create UK tour of immersive heritage performance, Breaking the Silence on the British Slave Trade, celebrating 18th Century Black British Abolitionists.

Arts Council Project Grant, 2018: £14,101, Primary Investigator (grant to create a series of immersive heritage performances in Norfolk for the HLF Paston Footprints 600 project)

Heritage Lottery Fund, 2017-2020: £374,100, Drama Lead and Project Partner (funding for a large scale heritage project celebrating the Paston family letters from 1450-1730 in Norfolk)

Brief Award, Brunel University 2016,  £15,000 (granted to conduct research on monograph project examining public performance of commemoration)

Wellcome Trust Small Arts Grant, Dreams to her Father: Creative Arts Research Project with Jungian Psychoanalysis and History of Psychology, 2010, £5500

Platsis Award, Dramatic Adaptation of Greek Tragedy, The Electra Project, 2003, $1500

Department of Theatre & Drama Fellowship, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 2002-(tuition and stipend for duration of coursework)

Jane Cowell Memorial Trust Award, Central School of Speech and Drama, London, UK, 1999 (grant award for achievement in performance)