In May 2008, Gerri will be the Simon Fellow at the University of Manchester. At the invitation of the Centre for Applied Theatre, she will spend a month at the university, reading, researching and meeting with lecturers and students. She hopes to use the time to increase her understanding of the potential role of community drama in the emerging ‘post-conflict’ context of Northern Ireland and to develop some ideas for projects concerning collective memory and heritage.

In collaboration with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Ballybeen Community Theatre, Gerri is developing a project exploring the decade 1906-1916, in Belfast; in particular looking at the role of women in industrial struggle and in the suffragette movement.  A duologue, written and directed by Gerri, ‘My dear Mary’, a fictional account of the letters between 2 prominent women Trade Unionists of the time, will be used to promote the project during the ICTU’s May Day celebrations.

During 2008, Gerri will be leading an evaluation of a major project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, ‘Portrait of a Nation’. Young people from 17 cities in the UK are working on creative expressions of their culture, identity, roots and heritage and will be coming together to share and celebrate their work in Liverpool in December. Gerri’s work will focus on what the young people feel they have gained from the programme