Claire Warden

Claire joined Loughborough University in 2018 as part of the Excellence 100 campaign, after holding positions at the University of Lincoln and De Montfort University. She gained her PhD from the University of Edinburgh supported by a University Scholarship, and, in 2009, was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities in Edinburgh. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Association.

She is Professor of Performance and Physical Culture and the current Associate Dean for Research & Innovation. Her work focuses on modernist cultures, interdisciplinary methods, and the intersection of sport and art. She is the author of four monographs, including the 2016 British Academy-funded Migrating Modernist Performance: British Theatrical Travels through Russia, and the co-editor of volumes such as Performance and Professional Wrestling (2016) and the Edinburgh Companion to Modernism in Contemporary Theatre (2023). She was the PI for the British Academy-funded Health and Wellbeing in Professional Wrestling (2020/21), is the co-founder of Wrestling Resurgence, and works with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Professional Wrestling to make wrestling safer.