PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies

The graduate program in Theatre and Performance Studies trains scholar-artists to develop projects in theatre history, performance studies, critical theory, and cultural analysis in various performance traditions and global contexts. Our faculty specialize in illuminating how social and cultural formations — particularly gender, race, indigeneity, ethnicity, sexuality, colonization and class — inform performances both on and off stage. In turn, we support and celebrate interdisciplinary scholarship from our graduate students that centers shared concerns of performance, such as the body, repetition, liveness, and visuality, while at the same time taking up concerns in outside fields of inquiry. As a faculty, we approach performance through diverse methods, such as historiography, ethnography, and critical analysis of performance texts. We welcome students from underrepresented communities, and we believe that people of color, disabled people, queer and trans folks, and first-generation scholars produce new ways of seeing and knowing that facilitate thinking and working in a diverse classroom.

Current graduate students can consult The Graduate Handbooks for all requirements, milestones, and department procedures.