Â鶹Æƽâ°æ

Courses Taught

World Theatre Histories; Introduction to Theatre; Trans Performance; Theatre and Performance in Muslim Worlds; Directing; Devising Theatre; Queer Asia in Performance; Devising Intercultural Theatre.

Background

Dr Claire Pamment is Associate Professor of Theatre and Performance, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Â鶹Æƽâ°æ, and former Director of GSWS. She is an interdisciplinary scholar and theatre-maker (director, dramaturg and deviser), working in South Asian theatre and performance, focusing on marginalized performance communities in Pakistan and its diaspora, at the intersections of class, gender, sexuality, religion, and race.

Her first monograph, developed out of her PhD dissertation, Comic Performance in Pakistan: The Bhānd (2017, Palgrave Macmillan and 2025, Vanguard), explores the genesis, history, and permutations of the Indo-Muslim comic performer, the bhānd. This work has been recognized as an important entry in global performance, and a foundational text for studies in Pakistani theatre—a field often foreclosed by colonialist historiography. A Podcast about the book can be found .

Her present project works with hijra, khwaja sira, trans and queer performance in Pakistan, and elsewhere, mediated by rapidly shifting landscapes of liberal rights-based and anti-gender movements, neoliberalism, nationalism, and religion. Her creative collaborations with these communities are central to her research. Supported by a SSHRC grant, she co-directed the devised documentary theatre play  (The Third Tune), collaboratively developed with trans and khwaja sira performers, staged in various venues in Pakistan, Europe and US. Her film was presented at AKS International Festival (2019), UK Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest (2020), Copenhagen World Pride (2021), AKS Festival Manchester (2026). In 2026 she directed the transnational devised performance project, Rasa Across Borders, resulting in performances at Â鶹Æƽâ°æ, Kolkata and Karachi, supported by the Art and Science Exchange Fellowship (with Bose and Mitra).   

Her second book, (Methuen Drama 2023) is collaboratively authored by scholars working across boundaries of disciplines (music/ sound/ theatre/ anthropology), methods and nations. She is co-editor of Reimagining Trans in Contemporary South Asia, (2026). Her new monograph in development, tentatively titled, Repertoires of Resistance: Khwaja Sira-Trans Performance in Pakistan, continues to centre the affective, sensorial and political possibilities of these communities’ performances, engaging performances in a broad range of genres, sites, assemblages and doings. Further essays can be found in TDR, TSQ, Comedy Studies, Theatre Journal, The Journal of Asian Studies and Asian Theatre Journal, and numerous books.

Pamment’s open access publications can be found on .

Pamment earned her BA from Cambridge University, MA from Goldsmiths College, MPhil from National College of Arts Lahore, and PhD in Performance Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. Prior to joining Â鶹Æƽâ°æ she held academic positions at Yale University and at several institutions in Pakistan, along with a strong foundation of professional dramaturgy and theatre-in-education with theatre companies in London.

Pamment is affiliated with GSWS, AMES and APIA. Her research and teaching are honored by Â鶹Æƽâ°æ’s Coco Faculty Fellow Award (2021-2022 and 2026-2027).

Productions directed for TSD: Katori Hall’s Our Lady of Kibeho, the devised and site-specific …& Mary, New Black Fests’ Hands Up: The Conversation, and the forthcoming WM Queer Histories.