Jill Davis
(1949 - living) U.K.
Academic
Lesbian academic working in theatre studies, Davis gained a degree in Drama and French at the University of Hull in 1970. Since 1971 she has taught Theatre Studies, first at the University of Glasgow and then at the University of Kent in Canterbury. Between 1979 and 1983 she was a member of the Arts Council Drama Panel, chairing the New Applications and Projects Committee from 1980 until 1982. Between 1984 and 1986 she was Chair of the South East Art Drama Panel.
Davis was the first British academic to champion the work of lesbian playwrights. She published books in the context of both the AIDS crisis and, later, the debates about the infamous Section 28, which became law in the summer of 1988 and which, among other things, forbade the promotion of homosexuality as a desirable form of relationship in schools. Her pionering work did much to herald the work of lesbian playwrights, and to document its existence in the UK.
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