Who got that job?

Nick Kaye. Job advertised in The Times Higher November 23, 2003

The department of drama, part of the School of Performance Arts at Exeter University, is investing £3.7 million in new staff, facilities and teaching more undergraduates and postgraduates.

Nick Kaye has been recruited to strengthen the university's research and teaching in drama. He became professor of performance studies last month.

The post was advertised late last year as a professorship in theatre history. But Exeter decided to create two chairs, one in performance studies and one in drama.

Mick Mangan, formerly head of English and performance studies at De Montfort University, will take up the drama professorship next month.

Professor Kaye was at Manchester University for four years, and spent 13 years at Warwick University before that. He said his decision to join Exeter had much to do with the nature of its drama department, which focuses on research through practice.

"It has a critical mass as a department - it's a very exciting place to be," he says.

Some of the work being done by its academics ties in with his research on the relationships between theatre and the development of ideas and practices in areas such as sculpture, installation and performance art.

His research includes an interdisciplinary project into performance, both live and electronically simulated.

The project was conceived when Professor Kaye was at Manchester, but he felt it had a greater chance of securing funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Board following his move to Exeter.