Introducing our first GENDER.ED-IASH Postdoc for 25/26 - Dr. Helen Shutt

Dr. Helen Shutt joins us as the third GENDER.ED-IASH Postdoctoral Fellow - one of two in 2025-26 academic year. Kaveri Qureshi sat down with her, to hear what brought her to Edinburgh.

Hi Helen! GENDER.ED and IASH are delighted to have you as incoming Postdoctoral Fellow. What do you make of Edinburgh so far?

Thank you! I actually lived in Edinburgh for a couple of years way back in 2017 when I was working for different theatre organisations here. It is great to come back and see that many of my favourite cafes and vintage shops remain (with many more new options in the mix!) This is my first time working with Edinburgh University though- I am really enjoying it and trying to take advantage of all the interesting talks and events on offer. I am incredibly lucky to be based at IASH, in a lovely office overlooking the Meadows. It is a really diverse community of Fellows visiting from all over the world and working across disciplines. Everyone is very friendly and curious about one another’s work, and I am having a great time working in such a supportive environment.

Could you tell us about your work up till now, and, what made you apply to this postdoc? 

For many years I was working in the Theatre sector both in producing roles and creating my own work as a playwright. I went back to study and did my PhD in Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow. My research was practice-based (meaning that I wrote and staged two plays as part of my methodology) and explored the role of the playwright in creating participatory performance. I became very interested in ideas of ‘care’ and how the values of feminist care ethics could guide the creative process and help foster aesthetic experimentation. Following my PhD I did a Fellowship with the brilliant Stellar Quines, an intersectional feminist theatre company, now based in Fife. In this work I used the lens of care to assess changes happening in the arts sector to make the process of theatre-making safer, more accessible and inclusive, including the emergence and evolution of expertise from practitioners such as Intimacy Co-ordinators.

Alongside my work that is more rooted in the theatre sector, I have worked on different projects employing participatory arts methods to explore gender-related experiences, such as SGBV, in different African countries, including Malawi, Mozambique and Sierra Leone. Last year, I worked as a Research Associate on a project undertaking a multi-dimensional investigation of female circumcision in Sierra Leone. I led on the design and delivery of arts-based methods to explore experiences of womanhood and was especially interested in the rites of passage and rituals that shape female identity. A particular highlight of this project was collaborating with Sierra Leonean actors and NGO staff to produce a verbatim audio drama; a radio play based on our interviews and conversations with women, complete with an original song. 

I first became aware of the IASH Fellowships when I was doing my PhD and a then Fellow presented his research at Glasgow University. He was very enthusiastic about his experience and how special the community was so I always hoped I might be able to apply for a Fellowship myself. IASH really value interdisciplinarity and as my work increasingly draws from different subject areas it felt like an apposite home to explore my new ideas. I am especially delighted to be undertaking a GENDER:ED Fellowship and to have the support of that brilliant network of researchers to draw from.

What will you be working on during your fellowship? 

I am hoping the Fellowship will allow me to interweave some of my different strands of interest. I will draw upon the values of Care Ethics and principles from artistic practice to propose a relation-centred, adaptive approach to gender research, using my recent work in Sierra Leone as a case study. While I will be reflecting upon my experiences in Sierra Leone, it is my intention that the principles I propose will have wider applications and will be of value to any gender researcher, particularly those conducting fieldwork, working with participant groups and dealing with sensitive subject matters. Focusing on three inter-connected aspects, i) relationality ii) environment and iii) embodiment, I will develop care-centred techniques and principles that can be adapted for different research contexts. I plan to offer some practical workshops exploring some of these ideas so hope very much that will be an opportunity to collaborate with GENDER:ED scholars who share some of my interests!

I believe you presented some of your research at the IASH International Women’s Day event last Friday! What did you talk about?

I talked about the Nigerian activist and educator Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, who throughout her lifetime fought for Women’s Rights and challenged British colonial rule. There is so much to say about her life and work. I focused on her collaboration with local market women to challenge the crippling taxes imposed by the colonial administration in a series of protests known as the Abeokuta Women’s Revolt (1946-49). I highlighted the ways in which these women used song as a tool of resistance. 

Link to IASH Profile: https://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/profile/dr-helen-e-shutt