Sally’s ongoing research centres around Judith Butler’s theory of grievability, defined as questioning:

‘whose life, if extinguished, would be publicly grievable’

whereas others:

‘leave either no public trace to grieve, or only a partial, mangled, and enigmatic trace’

(Butler, 2009, 75).

Her research applies these political philosophical ideas to a performance context – how do we empathise for performers and the struggles they represent, how much is this influenced by how ‘grievable’ we consider their lives to be societally?

 As Jones puts it, ‘empathetic recognition may be constrained by the terms of which bodies and subjects we find grievable’.

Sally’s work often addresses large global events or tragedies, such as the fire at Grenfell Tower or the Iraq War and by positioning her live body in the work, she asks the questions of why she is still here, why her privileges have provided her with life and whether as an audience you are only empathising with the tragedies I’m addressing because I am standing in front of you, a more societally considered ‘grievable’ body than those lives lost.

You can read Sally’s paper ‘Embodying the Disembodied: How can solo performance connect with non-present beings and wider systems?’ here.

Sally is also currently working on a collaborative article with Dr. Laura Bissell, Althea Young & Sinead Hargan on the role of performance in the Climate Crisis, using case studies from the Climate Portals Festival, including Sally & Althea’s work, Intimate Infinities; You as Here and Everywhere.