About

The mission of Urban Research Theater is to forge new interdisciplinary, international, intersectional solidarities through critical embodied practice. Since 2004 it has served as an umbrella organization for artistic projects created by Ben Spatz and associates.

Artistic Director

Ben Spatz (they/he) is a nonbinary scholar-practitioner working at the intersections of artistic research and critical theories of embodiment and identity. They are the author of several books, including What a Body Can Do (2015) and Race and the Forms of Knowledge (2024), as well as founding editor of the videographic Journal of Embodied Research. Ben has been affiliated with the Universities of Huddersfield, Leeds, Oxford, and CUNY and is now an Assistant Professor in Creative Practice at University of Birmingham. Their ongoing Judaica project explores diasporic and decolonial jewishness through performance, writing, and video.

Current Associates

Nazlıhan Eda Erçin
Kate Holden
Ilona Krawczyk
Francesca Placanica

Past Associates

Agnieszka Mendel, Judaica Project Team (2017)
Sióbhán Harrison, Artistic Associate (2014-2016)
Jennifer Parkin, Artistic Associate (2014-2015)
Karoliina Sandström, Guest Artist (2014)
Susan Oetgen and Peter Sciscioli, Guest Artists (2013)
Margot Bassett, Guest Artist (2012-2013)
Massimiliano Balduzzi, Associate Director (2008-2012)
Malgosia Szkandera, Guest Artist (2011)
Michele Farbman, Artistic Associate (2006-2009)

“Badawczy Teatr Miejski” (2004-2005): Ania Boratyn, Bartek Bulanda, Kasia Donner, Daniel Jastrzebski, Marek Konopczak, Monika Kuszewska,Izabela Mlynarz, Barbara Pawlic,Malgorzata Przedzak, Szymon Struzik, Izabela Walkowiak, Beata Zalewska.

SITE ARCHIVE

Urban Research Theater was founded in 2004 in Wroclaw, Poland, as ‘Badawczy Teatr Miejski‘. Since that time it has organized several hundred private and public events in the United States, United Kingdom, Poland, and elsewhere.

Previous phases of work can be found in these older website versions:

• Urban Research Theater 2016
• Urban Research Theater 2012
• Urban Research Theater 2009
• Urban Research Theater 2008
• Urban Research Theater 2007
• Urban Research Theater 2006
• junk river productions 2004
• junk river productions 2003

Copyright Notice

All materials on this website © 2004-2017 Ben Spatz / Urban Research Theater plus any additional co-authors.

Many of the materials on this website are available for public use according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0). You are free to share and adapt for noncommercial purposes, provided that you give appropriate credit including the names of all co-authors and a link to this site.

For materials related to the Judaica project, a more detailed Intellectual Property agreement applies.

For other material, especially that which involves guest practitioners and performers as in several theatrical works created prior to 2013, specific permission must be obtained for any usage that exceeds quotation.

Please note that embodied technique is not subject to copyright and may be used freely for any purpose.