About

‘Women, Martyrdom, & Religious Drama in the Abrahamic Traditions’ (WOMARD)

WOMARD is an ambitious new project that will study the dramatic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Shi’i Islam from a comparative perspective. Led by Professor Elisabeth Dutton, a specialist in early European biblical drama, the project is based at the University of Fribourg and is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

Whilst historically independent from each other, the religious plays of the traditions in question share certain characteristics. Thus far, it has not been possible to study these traditions together more formally as relevant scripts are unedited and in a range of languages including Yiddish and Persian. An important contribution of this project will be to edit and translate the scripts of early purimshpil and Iranian ta’ziyeh plays, making them accessible for wider scholarly and heritage community audiences. Within the framework of the WOMARD project, we will study these plays alongside examples of European biblical drama, focussing our comparative analysis through attention to three main strands of enquiry: the portrayal of female figures; martyrdom and sacrifice; and presentation and conversion of the religious other.

This project began on Feb 1st 2024 and will run for four years. The staging of performances is an essential element of our research methodology and we look forward to announcing opportunities to attend such events here.

The Team

WOMARD is led by Professor Elisabeth Dutton, specialist in Medieval European theatre, postdoctoral researcher Dr Lucy Deacon brings specialist knowledge of the Iranian ta’ziyeh tradition, and will be joined in this area of the project by Dr Sara Khalili. The team also look forward to welcoming Dr Sonya Yampolskaya, who will work on Yiddish and Hebrew materials. The project’s Advisory Board includes: Profs. Babak Rahimi, Daniel Boyarin, Chanita Goodblatt and Cora Dietl.