Overview
The Graduate Group in Performance Studies at UC Berkeley provides an interdisciplinary and individually crafted curriculum directed at advanced studies in the literatures, performances, cultural contexts, and theories of performance throughout the world. Based in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, the PhD program in Performance Studies takes advantage of Berkeley’s distinguished history in the field of drama and theater studies and opens out to a wider interrogation of the disciplines and methodologies of performance studies. The program is administered by an interdisciplinary graduate group: the Graduate Group in Performance Studies, comprised of faculty from a wide range of related departments. Students in the Performance Studies PhD program conduct research in a diverse array of interdisciplinary methodologies, on projects spanning the fields of theater, dance, and performance studies.
Undergraduate Program
The group does not offer an undergraduate program in Performance Studies. However, the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies offers a major and minor in Dance and Perfomance Studies and Theater and Performance Studies .
Graduate Program
Performance Studies : PhD
Courses
Performance Studies
THEATER 200A Introductory Colloquium on Interdisciplinary Research in Performance 2 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the research resources of the University, to the methodologies and research interests of the faculty affiliated with the Ph.D. program, to the demands of a professional academic career, and to trends and developments in theater, dance, and performance studies.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of colloquium per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Theater, Dance, and Performance St/Graduate
Grading: Letter grade.
THEATER 200B Research Colloquium 2 Units
Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
This course is designed to provide an opportunity for graduate students to work with one another to advance their individual research projects and present their ongoing work.
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of colloquium per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Theater, Dance, and Performance St/Graduate
Grading: Letter grade.
THEATER 201 Performance Theory 4 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
This core seminar for graduate students focuses on key issues in the theory of performance, with an emphasis on contemporary theoretical inquiry. Topics can include issues of representation and identity, presence, community, social efficacy, space, corporeality, audience, and transnational flows.
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Theater, Dance, and Performance St/Graduate
Grading: Letter grade.
Formerly known as: Dramatic Art 201
THEATER 202 Methodologies in Performance Studies 4 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
The study of different approaches and contemporary methodologies for analyzing performances of various kinds within their cultural and historical context. Specific methodologies can include archival research, field methods, etc. The specific focus in any one course is contingent upon the focus of the instructor.
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Theater, Dance, and Performance St/Graduate
Grading: Letter grade.
Formerly known as: Dramatic Art 202
THEATER 203 Performance Practicum: Bodies, Space, and Time 4 Units
Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Students in this course will engage in performance practice as: epistemology, methodology, and mode of research; explore the relationship between bodies, spaces, and temporality as a fundamental aspect of performance; and understand "performance as research" in Performance Studies as a field.
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Theater, Dance, and Performance St/Graduate
Grading: Letter grade.
THEATER 266 Special Topics: Theater Arts 1 - 4 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Topics vary from semester to semester and have included The Power of Music and Poetry in the Theater; Modern Drama and Theater, 1940 to the Present; Theaters, Tricksters, and Cultural Exchange; Art as Social Action; and The Invisible World (Process Seminar).
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Theater, Dance, and Performance St/Graduate
Grading: Letter grade.
THEATER 277 Special Studies in Directing 1 - 4 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Advanced practice in play direction.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Advancement to candidacy for the Ph.D. and consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of studio per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Theater, Dance, and Performance St/Graduate
Grading: Letter grade.
Formerly known as: Dramatic Art 277
THEATER 294 Directed Research 1 - 12 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Meetings to be arranged, either individually or as a group to explore fields not covered in courses listed elsewhere in Dramatic Art's offerings. May be taken by students engaged in writing dissertations.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Dramatic Art and consent of instructor
Credit Restrictions: A maximum of 12 units may be divided among several instructors during a semester.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0-0 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Theater, Dance, and Performance St/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
THEATER 299 Special Study 1 - 4 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Summer 2017 10 Week Session, Spring 2017
May be taken when preparing prospectus, graduate portfolio, and/or oral presentation before qualifying oral examination. May not be substituted for available seminars.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of independent study per week
Summer:
6 weeks - 2.5-10 hours of independent study per week
8 weeks - 1-7.5 hours of independent study per week
10 weeks - 1.5-6 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Theater, Dance, and Performance St/Graduate
Grading: Letter grade.
Formerly known as: Dramatic Art 299
THEATER 300 Professional Preparation: Supervised Teaching in Dramatic Art 2 - 4 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Discussion, problem review and development, course development, supervised practice of teaching.
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, appointment as a teaching assistant or associate, or consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Theater, Dance, and Performance St/Professional course for teachers or prospective teachers
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Formerly known as: Dramatic Art 300
THEATER 340 Pedagogy for Movement Based Classes - Graduate Level 4 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2015
This course studies pedagogical theories and methods. It is designed to prepare graduate students to teach practice-based dance and movement courses. In class teaching exercises will be supported by readings, research projects and assignments on the subject of pedagogy. Development of professional teaching documents such as a teaching philosophy, a sample course syllabus, sample lesson plans, and self-evaluation statements are required.
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 6 hours of studio per week
Summer:
6 weeks - 15 hours of studio per week
8 weeks - 10 hours of studio per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Theater, Dance, and Performance St/Professional course for teachers or prospective teachers
Grading: Letter grade.
THEATER 602 Individual Study for Doctoral Students 1 - 12 Units
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Individual study in consultation with the major field adviser, intended to provide an opportunity for qualified students to prepare themselves for the various examinations required of candidates for the Ph.D.
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Course does not satisfy unit or residence requirements for doctoral degree.
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 8 weeks - 15-99 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Theater, Dance, and Performance St/Graduate examination preparation
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Formerly known as: Dramatic Art 602
Faculty
Core Faculty
Professors
Catherine M. Cole, Professor. Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; PhD. Northwestern University. African Studies; Gender Studies; Disability Studies; Ethnography; Human Rights and Transitional Justice.
Faculty Profile
Mark Griffith, Professor. Departments of Classics and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; PhD. Cambridge University; Classical drama and performance; Greek and Latin literature.
Faculty Profile
Shannon Jackson, Professor. Departments of Rhetoric and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; PhD. Northwestern University; Performance Studies; Contemporary theater; American cultural history and Performance Historiography; Adaptation.
Faculty Profile
Trinh Minh-ha, Professor. Department of Women’s Studies; Feminist Theory; Film Theory and production; Comparative Literary and Art Theory; Cultural Politics; Third World Arts and Politics.
Faculty Profile
Miryam Sas, Professor. Departments of Comparative Literature and Film Studies; PhD. Yale University; 20th century poetry; Japanese Experimental Theater and Dance; Memory and Trauma; Mass Media and Cultural Studies; Film.
Faculty Profile
Mary Ann Smart, Professor. Department of Music; PhD. Cornell University; 19th century opera; women in opera; feminist approaches to opera; the role of gesture in opera.
Faculty Profile
Associate Professors
Brandi Wilkins Catanese, Associate Professor. Departments of African American Studies and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; PhD. Stanford University; African-American Drama and Theater.
Faculty Profile
Abigail De Kosnik, Associate Professor. Berkeley Center for New Media and Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; PhD. Northwestern University; Technology and Performance; Artistic Appropriation and Remix; Ethnicity, Gender, and Digital Culture; Cultural Studies; Subcultures and Fan Cultures; Marxism and Post-Structuralism.
Faculty Profile
SanSan Kwan, Associate Professor. Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies: PhD. New York University; Critical Dance Studies; Transnational Asian American Studies; Cultural Geography; Theories of Space and Kinesthesia, Interculturalism, Modern Dance, Ballet, and Yoga.
Faculty Profile
Peter Glazer, Associate Professor. Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; PhD. Northwestern University; Directing; Adaptation; Performance Theory; 20th century American Theater; Commemorative Performance.
Faculty Profile
Laura E. Pérez, Associate Professor. Department of Ethnic Studies; PhD. Harvard University; Post-1965 U.S. Latina/o Visual, Performance, and Literary Arts; Feminist, “Minority,” Post-Colonial, and Cultural Studies theories.
Faculty Profile
Juana Maria Rodriguez, Associate Professor. Gender and Women’s Studies; PhD. UC Berkeley; Queer Theory and Cultural Activism; Latin@ Popular Cultures; Performance Studies; Critical Race Theory; Sex and Sexuality Studies; Technology and Media Arts.
Faculty Profile
Shannon Steen, Associate Professor and Head Graduate Adviser. Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; PhD. Stanford University; performance and critical race studies (especially the intersection of African and Asian American histories), American Studies, globalization and American urban development, and post/modernisms.
Faculty Profile
Sophie Volpp, Associate Professor. Departments of Comparative Literature and East Asian Languages and Cultures; PhD. Harvard University; classical Chinese performance, Chinese literature of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, history of performance, gender theory, the history of sexuality, and the representation of material culture.
Faculty Profile
Alexei Yurchak, Associate Professor. Department of Anthropology; PhD. Duke University; theories of discourse, power and performance, the politics of aesthetics, irony and ideology, contemporary media, Russian informal art, Soviet state socialism and postsocialism, cities and urban space.
Faculty Profile
Assistant Professors
Angela Marino, Assistant Professor. Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; PhD., New York University; politics and performance in the Americas; Latino American performance and dramatic literature; popular fiesta and carnival theory.
Faculty Profile
Affiliated Faculty
Affiliated Professors
Charles Briggs, Alan Dundes Distinguished Professor in Folklore. Department of Anthropology; PhD. University of Chicago; performing the diseased body and its therapeutic intervention, biomedical and vernacular; theorizing relations between narrative and violence; mediatization and its reified objects; creating modern subjects by creating their “traditional” Others.
Faculty Profile
Judith Butler, Professor. Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature; PhD. Yale University; Performance and Identity.
Faculty Profile
Dru Dougherty, Professor. Department of Spanish and Portuguese; PhD. Harvard University; Spanish drama, especially of the early 20th century.
Faculty Profile
Joe Goode, Professor. Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; BFA, Virginia Commonwealth University; choreography and interdisciplinary performance.
Faculty Profile
Jocelyne Guilbault, Professor. Department of Music; PhD. University of Michigan; Ethnomusicology; Caribbean Musics (popular and traditional); Creolization; Power; Cultural Politics; Nationalism; Diaspora.
Faculty Profile
Andrew Jones, Professor. Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures; PhD. UC Berkeley; Children’s Literature; Chinese Popular Music; East Asian Languages and Cultures; Literary Translation; Media Technology; Modern Chinese Fiction; Sonic Culture.
Faculty Profile
Anton Kaes, Professor. Department of German and Film Studies; PhD. Stanford University; modern German theater (Expressionism, Brecht; and the theater of the 1920s); postmodernist theater and film; the relationship between theater and film; theory of film, Critical Theory, and Cultural Studies.
Faculty Profile
John Lie, Professor. Department of Sociology; Chair, Center for Korean Studies; PhD. Harvard University; social theory, political economy, Korean diaspora.
Faculty Profile
Susan Schweik, Professor. Department of English; PhD. Yale University; Disability Studies; Poetry; 20th-Century American Literature; 19th-Century American literature; Cultural Studies; Gender & Sexuality Studies; Race and Ethnicity.
Faculty Profile
Affiliated Associate Professors
Paola Bacchetta, Associate Professor. Department of Gender & Women’s Studies; PhD. in Sociology from The Sorbonne, Paris; transnational feminist and queer theories; inseparabilities of gender, sexuality, “race”-racism,postcoloniality; Hindu nationalism; global political conflict; feminist and queer of color, and right wing, movement discourses and practices in the U.S., India and France; transnational feminist and queer alliances.
Faculty Profile
Saba Mahmood, Associate Professor. Department of Anthropology; PhD. Stanford University; Anthropology of Subject Formation, Liberalism, and Secular Modernity; Feminist and Poststructuralist Theory; Religion and Politics; Islam, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Faculty Profile
Emeritus Faculty
Vasudha Dalmia, Professor. Department of South and South East Asian Studies; PhD. Jawaharlal Nehru University; Hindi Drama and other Indian Theater traditions; Brecht.
Faculty Profile
Mel Gordon, Professor. Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; PhD. New York University; Modern and Contemporary European Theater; Popular entertainment.
Faculty Profile
Linda Williams, Professor. Departments of Film Studies and Rhetoric; PhD. University of Colorado; Popular Moving-Image Genres (Pornography, Melodrama, and “Body Genres” of all sorts); Eastern and Western Forms of Melodrama; Film Theory.
Faculty Profile
Contact Information
Graduate Group in Performance Studies
D33 Hearst Field Annex
Phone: 510-643-4050
Graduate Student Services Adviser
Robin Davidson
D33 Hearst Field Annex
Phone: 510-643-4050