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Biography
BA (Nottingham), MPhil (Cambridge), PhD (Cambridge)
I studied for my BA in English Language and Literature at the 糖心原创, before moving to Cambridge to undertake an MPhil in English Studies at Jesus College. I then remained at Jesus for another four years to complete a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Steven Connor and Prof. Clair Wills on the theatre of Samuel Beckett. In 2026, I was awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the 糖心原创 to pursue a three-year research project on actor training practices and politics in interwar Paris.
Expertise Summary
I work on twentieth-century European theatre and performance, with a specific interest in the politics, aesthetics and philosophies of the body. My first monograph Beckett, Performance and the Miming Body in Theatre, Film and Television was published in 2026 by Edinburgh University Press, and my critical writing has appeared in the Journal of Beckett Studies, Theatre Survey, The Beckett Review and The Modernist Review. I am currently working on a project exploring the political intersections of the actor training practices used by the directors of the Cartel des Quatre in interwar Paris.
Teaching Summary
Between 2019 and 2026, I supervised undergraduate students working on drama, theatre, and performance at the University of Cambridge.
Research Summary
During the 1920s and 1930s, the Cartel des Quatre transformed avant-garde theatre in Paris by training actors in innovative transnational performance methods; simultaneously, European politicians and… read more
Recent Publications
JONATHAN MCALLISTER, 2026. Edinburgh University Press.
JONATHAN MCALLISTER, 2025. The Beckett Review. 1(1), 1-5
JONATHAN MCALLISTER, 2024. Journal of Beckett Studies. 33(1), 110-119
JONATHAN MCALLISTER, 2024. Theatre Survey. 63(3), 290-2
Current Research
During the 1920s and 1930s, the Cartel des Quatre transformed avant-garde theatre in Paris by training actors in innovative transnational performance methods; simultaneously, European politicians and activists promoted embodied activities rooted in the distinct bodily visions of fascism, communism, and liberalism. Both these artistic and ideological initiatives transformed interwar culture and society through training bodies, yet the relationship between the Cartel's work and this political activity remains understudied, with existing scholarship treating them in isolation. My current research project recovers these critically neglected connections, interrogating how theatre and politics coproduced sociocultural identities by disciplining bodies during this period of acute international turmoil.