Performance Philosophy & Animals: Towards a Radical Equality (website) is a research project led by Prof. Dr. Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca at the University of Surrey, UK and DAS Graduate School, Amsterdam University of the Arts. The aim of this project is to transform our understanding of the relationships between performance, philosophy and animals. 

Recent years have seen an exciting surge of interest in the potential for mutually beneficial interactions between performance and philosophy. This project suggests that the radical potential of this emerging field lies in its capacity to challenge the hierarchies between the arts and other forms of thought and to act as a pioneer in achieving greater equality in how we produce knowledge, with a particular focus on what performance-based research might contribute to our understanding of nonhuman animals. 

The project aims to advance our thinking about how performance, philosophy and animals interact by investigating how performance might transform philosophy and how our concepts of performance and equality might be transformed by the animal, using a unique 'performance philosophy' methodology combining in-depth philosophical scholarship with 2 core case study collaborations with the critically acclaimed performance companies: the Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, Fevered Sleep and the influential US-based company, Every house has a door, both of whom are developing projects on animals and performance. 

This project was originally funded by the AHRC’s Leadership Fellows scheme.