Elise Richter Position


Research Interests

• Intercultural- und Transcultural Theatre

• Experimental Theatre (in Austria and Italy)


• European Performing Arts Theory and History in the 20th Century, also in terms of film and media culture

• 
Theatre Anthropology

Biography

After completing the equivalent of a Master's degree (Mag. Phil. honors) in Theatre Studies and Philosophy in 1998 at the University of Vienna (A) and University of Pisa (I) with her master's thesis about intercultural theatre "Der Mohr im Mor. Interkulturelles Theater in Theorie und Praxis" (1999, Frankfurt am Main u.a.: Peter Lang Verlag) – Pfeiffer enrolled in doctoral studies. She graduated with honors (Dr. Phil. honors) with a dissertation about the radical Italian theatre practitioner Carmelo Bene (1937–2002) "Non esisto dunque sono" in 2002. The habilitation project negotiates "Theatrical Concepts of Being. Theatre Anthropological Discourses and Performing Arts" (working title); submission of the habilitation thesis within the framework of th research project financed by the Elise Richter Programme (FWF) titled "Ephemer und leibhaftig. Schauspielerische Erkundungen von Ariane Mnouchkine, Carmelo Bene und Jerzy Grotowski" at the University of Vienna 2018.

She worked as a scholarly employee for various university and non-university research institutes and archives in Vienna, such as INST (Vienna), Jura Soyfer Society (Vienna) and on the research project "Experimental Theatre in Austria 1945–1983" at the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna, as well as in the documentation team of the three-year EU project on the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards Pontedera, Italy). Next she worked as a scholarly employee in the management team at the Don Juan Archive in Vienna, as well as working as a freelance scholar on the documentation and book project "Dario Fo Theater in the Working Districts of Vienna," which resulted in a monograph in 2009 (Wien: Mandelbaum Verlag).

1995 she gave her first presentations at national and international congresses, 2001 followed by her teaching contracts at Austrian and international universities (Vienna, Austria; Catania, Italy; Leipzig and Mainz, Germany). From 2009 since 2011 Pfeiffer was working as a University Assistant, since 2010 as the Vice Director of Studies at the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies, University of Vienna and 2012–2013 as the Vice Director of Studies and as a Visiting Professor at that same department. Since June 2013 she is engaged at the tfm with her research project "(Re)Presenting Theatrical Concepts of Being" under the umbrella of Elise Richter Programme (FWF).

Recent Publications

• "Negotiating and Introducing Identities: The 'Écriture Collective' of Ariane Mnouchkine, Hélène Cixous and the Théâtre du Soleil." In: Guri E. Barstad, Karen S.P. Knutsen, Elin Nesje Vestli (Ed.): Exploring Identity in Literature and Life Stories. The Elusive Self. Newcastle / Tyne: Cambride Scholars 2019, pp. 215–227.
  
  
• "'Das Meer ist ein Loch.' Elfriede Jelinek und Die Schweigende Mehrheit". In: Silke Felber & Gabriele C. Pfeiffer (Ed.): Das Meer im Blick. Betrachtungen der performativen Künste und der Literatur. Roma: Artemide 2018. (= Galatea. Collana di studi mitteleuropei e mediterranei diretta da Alessandra Schininà e Giovanni Schininà, vol. 4), pp. 85–98.

• "Magari lo fosse stata – Le Dernier Caravansérail (Odyssées 2003), creazione colletiva del Théâtre du Soleil". Traduzione dal Tedesco di Lorenza Castellan. In: Aspetti dell'ulissismo intellettuale dall'Ottocento a oggi. Atti del Convegno di studi (Ragusa Ibal, 20–21 ottobre 2016). Ed. by Nunzio Zago. Leonforte: Siké Edizioni 2018, pp. 225–235.

Other Publications


Latest Lecture

• Concluding Colloquium
  5 December 2018
  tfm | Department for Theatre, Film- and Media Studies at the University of Vienna / Austria
  
  
• Statement concerning the article "Spiel der Masken – Ariane Mnouchkine und das Eigenleben ihrer Figuren"
  Diskurs. Theater anders denken. Book launch and discussion Erinnern – Erzählen – Erkennen
  28 May 2018
  Schauspielhaus Leipzig in cooperation with the Institute for Theatre Studies of Leipzig University / Germany

• Theater von, für und mit
  Series of lectures "Participate! Partizipative und performative Formen der Gegenwart" at the tfm | Deparment of Theatre, Film and Media Studies
  22 May 2017
  tfm | Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies, University Vienna / Austria

Other Lectures and Speeches


Teaching

• since 2013 Teaching focus concerning the current research project at the Universities of Mainz (D), Catania/Ragusa (I), Bern (CH), Vienna (A) and Berlin (D)

• since 2001 – ongoing teaching
  teaching assignments and workshops at the Universities of Catania/Ragusa (Italy), Bern (Switzerland), Leipzig and Mainz (Germany) as well as Vienna (Austria)
  especially
  regular teaching assignments at the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies, University of Vienna in the areas of "Theater Anthropology" (introduction and advanced), "Experimental Theater in Austria post 1945", "Bodies, Enactment and Interaction" and current issues as "Escape Migration Theatre"

Research Awards, Research Grants and Scholarships by …

Research Fundings in chronological order