Dr Solomon Lennox

Lennox’s research examines how the relationship between the stories people tell about their lives (narrative identity) and the repeated physical practices they engage with (e.g. boxing training), support their identity performance. His work demonstrates the pervasive violence of Whiteness in the formation of narrative identity in combat sports and political arenas.

In Boxing and Performance (2020), Lennox established the first typology of boxing’s shared narrative resources, demonstrating how grand narratives act as racist specters through which identities are performed. In Boxing, Narrative and Culture (2023), he presented the first body of work through which Global South scholars explored the impact of the typology of boxing’s shared narrative resources on how global boxing identities are performed.

Lennox’s outputs have interrogated the potential violence of appropriating physical gestures as a form of activism (‘Taking a Knee’ 2022); explored how the violence of Whiteness can be countered or reinforced through digital avatars (‘Social Avatars’ 2023); demonstrated the impact of the violence of Whiteness when projected onto readings of Black embodied experience (‘Lady Tyger’ 2024); examined how White violence is affected, performed, and witnessed through fashion (‘Teddy Boys and the Performativity of Dangerous Fashion’ in progress with International Journal of Fashion Studies). 

Lennox provides expert commentary for news outlets (such as, New Republic and Front Office Sports) on the political violence of Whiteness in combat sports.

He is currently working on his second, sole-authored, monograph, Spectating White Violence. The project establishes a theory of spectatorship as it pertains to the performance of White violence, as manifest in North America and the UK from the late 1800s onwards (expected publication 2026). Additionally, Lennox is also be commissioned to guest edit a special edition of the journal Arts, titled “Shared Narratives in Performance: The Interplay of Narrative, Gestures, and Identity Formation”.

Lennox currently supervises three PhD projects:

• Supriti Malhotra, project title: ETHNOCULTURAL EMPATHY & ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS - A Situated Experiment in MR Design

• Rain Howard (nonbinariness, performance and exercise) (funded by AHRC) 
• Roma Hardaker (trans embodiment and contact sports) (funded by AHRC) 

Lennox is project lead on the Institute of Social and Economic Research funded project ‘Understanding the Absence of Active Clubs in Newfoundland and Labrador’

Academic Leadership

Lennox was Head of Department, Arts at Northumbria University (2019-2024) and Head of Subject, Drama at Northumbria University (2017-2019). Lennox is currently Vice-Chair and Secretary for the Theatre & Performance Research Association (2022 – present), and has previously held elected roles as Board Member and Archivist for Performance Studies international (2015-2021), and Treasurer for the Standing Conference of Drama Departments (now DramaHE) (2014-2019).

Lennox is interested in supervising PhD projects in performance studies across a range of topics not limited to

• Narrative identity
• Narrative inquiry
• Performance and activism
• Performance of Whiteness
• White violence
• Ethnography
• Performance ethnography
• Sport and performance
• Combat sports
• Hauntology

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Lady Tyger: A legacy starved into existence , Crews, S., Lennox, S. 16 Sep 2024, In: Performance Research
• Social Avatars and Future Boxing Identities, Crews, S., Lennox, P. 2024, In: Visual Resources
• Boxing, Narrative and Culture: Critical Perspectives, Crews, S., Lennox, P. 16 Oct 2023
• Ducking and Diving: Why Boxing Clubs Hit the Targets Other Sports Cannot Reach in Deprived Communities, Barrett, D., Edmondson, L., Millar, R., Lennox, P. 16 Oct 2023, Boxing, Narrative and Culture, London, Routledge
• Influencer Boxing: Authenticity and the Quest for Redemption, Lennox, P. 16 Oct 2023, Boxing, Narrative and Culture, London, Routledge
• On Blood, Crews, S., Lennox, P. 2 Jan 2023, In: Performance Research
• Taking a Knee: haunted memetic counter-activism, Lennox, S. 13 Jul 2022, In: Visual Communication
• Staging the Boxing Ring as Heterotopia in Marco Ramirez's The Royale, Lennox, S. 20 Aug 2021, Sports Plays, London, Taylor & Francis
• Boxing and Performance: Memetic Hauntings, Crews, S., Lennox, S. 30 Nov 2020

• Supriti Malhotra ETHNOCULTURAL EMPATHY & ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS - A Situated Experiment in MR Design Start Date: 01/11/2024
• Anthea Moys Ambidlala: Towards a method of refluxivity in play Start Date: 01/10/2018 End Date: 19/11/2022

• PhD December 31 2012
• Drama MFA July 01 2008
• Drama BA (Hons) July 01 2003
• Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2014