Dr Stuart Andrews
Senior Lecturer in Theatre

Summary

I work at the intersection of culture, community, place, and resilience — exploring how arts and culture, community knowledge, and social infrastructure strengthen local, regional, and national planning for contemporary challenges. Through research, consultancy, leadership, and facilitation, I support organisations to think differently about resilience as a cultural practice. This work informs policy, organisational structure and planning, and contributes to place-based change.

As Co-Director of Performing City Resilience, I collaborate internationally with emergency planners, cultural leaders, government officials, and organisations to develop research-led strategic change. This work has helped partners reframe their approaches, revise policies and procedures, and build imaginative, locally situated responses to local and global pressures.

My research publications span culture, emergency planning, urban resilience, architecture, and community responses to complex public challenges. With Patrick Duggan, I co-authored Performing New Orleans: Rethinking Resilience in Art and Everyday Life (Louisiana State University Press, 2025), which examines the vital role of arts practices in the resilience of the city. As editor for The City series in Liminalities, an international, open access journal, I welcome expressions of interest for work that addresses and reimagines contemporary cities.

Within universities, I have held leadership roles in research, partnerships, and learning and teaching. I specialise in supporting colleagues to enhance the impact of their research, designing and leading degree programmes, and brokering collaborations across disciplines and sectors. At Brunel University of London, I lead the BA Theatre programme and teach on community, culture, place, and resilience, including on the MA in Wargaming and Resilience Planning.

Across all my work, I seek to connect research, policy, and practice in ways that support meaningful change.

Qualifications

BA/PhD

Responsibility

Co-director: Performing City Resilience

Research Impact Co-Lead (Department of Arts and Humanities)

Programme Lead: BA Theatre