Ariane Gros

Ariane Gros is a researcher in performance and media studies, with an expertise on cultural history and postcolonial heritage. Her doctoral thesis, completed jointly between the Universities of Cologne and Amsterdam (awarded summa cum laude, forthcoming with J.B. Metzler), offers the first history of the clown to fully account for its colonial dimension and contemporary legacy. Drawn to international relations, she has interned as a speechwriter in the Cabinet of the Director-General of UNESCO and serves on the strategic board of FAB for Performance Studies international (PSi), A dramaturg by training, she has collaborated for over five years with Dutch artist Merel Smitt on participatory performance devices, a methodology documented in a forthcoming volume with HumDrum Press. She is currently developing an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship application on the role of performance in colonial propaganda and its museal afterlives across France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.