A hybrid nation: 're-imagined animal costume as a neuro-divergent third performative space'

This practice-based PhD argues that hybrid animal-costume performance, when approached through a neurodivergent lens, creates a unique ‘performative third space’ in which questions of national, religious, and sexual identity can be explored, challenged, and reimagined. The research brings together lived experience, creative practice, and reflective writing to explore how costume performance can offer new ways of being and belonging.

Through the design, making, performance, and exhibition of hybrid animal costumes, including the recurring figure of the White Rabbit, this work explores how performing in costume allows for transformation, personal expression, and emotional connection. These performances create spaces where identity can feel more open, physical, and imaginative for both the performer and the audience. The concept of the ‘performative third space’ builds on the theory of hybridity to describe a space where fixed ideas about identity can shift. The costume becomes a tool that allows for both hiding and revealing. It helps make internal feelings and experiences visible in ways that are often difficult to put into words.

This research contributes to the fields of performance studies, disability and neurodivergent practice, and posthuman and material theory. It offers a creative and personal way to explore identity that goes beyond fixed categories. The work encourages more inclusive and embodied ways of thinking about how we express who we are.