Victor Emeljanow Bursary

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VICTOR EMELJANOW BURSARY (ECR Conference Bursary)

Purpose The Victor Emeljanow Bursary assists a deserving, unfunded Early Career Researcher (ECR) to attend and present at the annual ADSA conference or other ADSA event.
Eligibility Nominees must:
  • be recently completed ECRs (within three years of being awarded);
  • have no institutional funding; and
  • submit an extended abstract (600 words) and CV to the prize chair by the nominated deadline.
Value $600 (in recognition that the 2025 conference will be held in New Zealand) to be used towards any aspect of the annual ADSA conference or ADSA event attendance
Deadline 1 September 2025
Judging Criteria
  • Clarity and Relevance to the Conference Theme
  • Method or Approach
  • Significance
  • Originality
Judge Selection Each year a new judge with appropriate expertise will be appointed to the panel. Any judge who has evaluated THREE years’ worth of applications will step down from the panel. 
Nomination Process The nominee will submit a nomination cover sheet and relevant documentation to prizes@adsa.edu.au. 
Prize History In 2018 the inaugural Joanne Tompkins Prize for editing was awarded to Gillian Arrighi and Victor Emeljanow for their editorial work on Popular Entertainment Studies. Following the passing of Professor Emeljanow just prior to the award, Gillian Arrighi decided the most appropriate direction of the prize money would be to support an ECR to attend the 2019 ADSA conference. The name of the initial one-off bursary reflected the journal, Popular Entertainment Studies, but it is intended to support a researcher working in any field of Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies. Following the 2019 conference, it was decided to continue this gesture, and rename the bursary the Victor Emeljanow Bursary in honour of Professor Emeljanow.

The late Victor Emeljanow was Emeritus Professor in the School of Creative Industries at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and General Editor of the e-journal Popular Entertainment Studies. He published widely on subjects including the reception of Chekhov in Britain, the career of Theodore Kommisarjevsky, Beerbohm Tree's engagement with Ibsen on the West End, Victorian popular dramatists, and prisoner-of-war entertainments during the First and Second World Wars.



Recipients of the Award

2025 Dr Jiva Nath Lamsal – Independent Researcher / University of Sydney
Paper: “Collaborative Performances for Justice: The Role of, and Care for, an Audience in Nepali Kachahari Natak”

Dr Jiva Lamsal’s paper offers an insightful and deeply contextualised study of community-based theatre practice in Nepal, examining Kachahari Natak—a forum theatre form that mobilises dialogue, empathy, and social change. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and analysis, Lamsal demonstrates how the Shilpee Theatre’s performances in remote mountain villages enact reciprocal care between artists and audiences, bridging social divides through participatory performance. His work foregrounds the interplay of activism, aesthetics, and local agency, challenging Western models of applied theatre while advancing decolonial perspectives on justice and collaboration.

The judges commend Dr Lamsal’s outstanding scholarly and ethical engagement with theatre as a vehicle for social transformation, his commitment to amplifying Nepali voices in global performance discourse, and his contribution as an emerging scholar whose research embodies both intellectual rigour and cultural empathy. Lamsal’s work strongly aligns with the conference theme of Manaakitanga: Performing Welcome, Care and Respect.

2024 No award
2023 Kath Kenny
2022 No award
2021 Sean Mulcahy (La Trobe University)
2020 No award
2019 Hannah Banks (Victoria University of Wellington)