E-mail: aurelien.bellucci@khk.uni-saarland.de
Aurélien Bellucci is a scholar of comparative literature and theatre whose research explores democracy, gentrification, and reparation through performance across Europe and Asia. He is an associate at the Harvard University Asia Center and a research affiliate in the ERC-funded project “Theatre and Gentrification in the European City” (THEAGENT). He received his PhD in comparative literature from Harvard University, where his dissertation, “Democratic Performances: How Theater Creates the People”, received an Honorable Mention for the ACLA Charles Bernheimer Prize. Working at the intersection of comparative literature, theatre studies, and political theory, he draws on archival research and ethnographic fieldwork to examine how participatory theatre enables spectators to constitute a citizen body, reshaping historical memory, democratic agency, and urban life. He is currently completing his first book, People’s Theatres, which documents, compares, and analyzes participatory performances in Europe and Asia.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Bellucci, Aurélien, Emine Fişek, Regina Lissowska-Postaremczak, Joseph Prestwich, and Clio Unger. “Stages of Gentrification: An International Roundtable”. Theatre Research International 51, no. 1 (2026): 194–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/03078833.2026.2634146.
- Bellucci, Aurélien. “Democratic Performance with the Jana Natya Manch in India”. New Theatre Quarterly 39, no. 2 (2023): 136–144. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266464X23000076.
- Bellucci, Aurélien. “Politics of Dis-Estrangement: Brecht Is No Stranger in Asia Today”. The Brecht Yearbook/Das Brecht-Jahrbuch 45 (2020): 304–321. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781800101074-022.
CURE RESEARCH PROJECT
Citizen Bodies: Participatory Theatre and Memorial Reparation
CURE research project 2026/27