Doctoral Projects in Progress in Theatre Arts, 2017

This is the sixty-fifth annual report of dissertations in progress in theatre arts in the United States. The entries contained in this report were gathered from those institutions offering a doctoral degree in theatre or related fields. The accuracy of the report depends largely on the cooperation of those faculty members who submitted complete and timely information. By compiling this data, we seek to inform the greater theatre community of the diverse research projects currently underway across various universities and disciplines.

This report lists (in order) the doctoral student's name, dissertation title, institution, academic department, faculty supervisor, and projected year of completion. Dissertation topics are arranged in two parts: in part 1, topics are listed first geographically, and secondarily by time periods; and part 2 provides additional divisions for those projects that are not easily classified within geographic or historical parameters, but conform to other emerging areas of contemporary research.

A request for submissions for the 2018 edition will be mailed in October 2017. Please contact the 2017-18 editor, Andrew Gibb (andrew.gibb@ttu.edu), if your institution is not already receiving the annual call for submissions.

My associate editors and I are grateful for the effort of all those who have contributed to this annual report. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the Texas Tech University School of Theatre and Dance and its director, Mark Charney, for sponsoring this endeavor.

PART I

AFRICA

Adelakun, Abimbola. Body of Christ, Body of Pleasure: Theatre, Ritual, and Pentecostal Performance in West Africa. University of Texas at Austin. Theatre and Dance. Joni Jones. 2017.

AUSTRIA

King, Patrick. Only One Vienna: The Zauberstück's Spectacular Musical Comedy on the Biedermeier Stage. Tufts University. Drama and Dance. Laurence Senelick. 2018.

CARIBBEAN

Bailon, Megan. Precarious Aesthetics and Resistance in Contemporary Caribbean Performances of Migration. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Spanish and Portuguese. Paola Hernández. 2017.

ENGLAND

Medieval/Renaissance

Cushman, Helen. Producing Knowledge in the Middle English Mystery Cycle. Harvard University. English. Nicholas Watson. 2017.

Devlin, Maria. Ethics and Renaissance Comedy. Harvard University. English. Gordon Teskey. 2017.

N'Diaye, Noémie. Scripting Blackness: Embodied Techniques of Racialization in Seventeenth-Century European Theater. Columbia University. Theatre. Jean Howard. 2018.

Restoration and Eighteenth Century

Gallagher, Megan. An Annotated Fourth Folio of Shakespeare. Claremont Graduate University. English. Lori Anne Ferrell. 2018.

Wilson, Seth. Warriors, Partners, Enthusiasts: A Transnational View of the Performance of Gender in the Long Eighteenth Century. University of Georgia. Theatre and Film Studies. Marla Carlson. 2018.

Nineteenth Century

Armstrong, James. Fit for the Stage: Regency Actors and the Inspiration behind Romantic Drama. The Graduate Center, CUNY. Theatre. Marvin Carlson. 2020.

Kelly, Lisa. Constructing Celebrity: Strategies of Nineteenth-Century British Actresses to Enhance Their Image and Social Status. Northwestern University. Theatre. Tracy C. Davis. 2017.

Simon, Jessica. Mimetic Sensations: Sensation (Melodrama, the Sensational Novel, and Victorian Realism). Columbia University. Theatre. Sharon Marcus. 2018.

Swimm, Katherine. Theatre of the Mind: Towards a Dialogue between Mental Illness and Theatrical Practice in Nineteenth-Century England. Tufts University. Drama and Dance. Laurence Senelick. 2017.

Twentieth Century

Stulberg, Jacob. The Unstaging of the Air: BBC Radio and Modern British Drama. Harvard University. English. Martin Puchner. 2017.

Twenty-first Century

Daronkolae, Esmaeil Najar. Pam Gems: Rethinking Her Life and Impact of Her Plays on Modern British Theatre. Ohio State University. Theatre. Lesley Ferris. 2017.

GERMANY

Pike, Jared. Tribunals of the Public: Theatre and Public Protest in Nineteenth-Century Munich. The Graduate Center, CUNY. Theatre. Marvin Carlson. 2019.

GREECE

Banapoulou, Christina. Tragedy and Indebtedness in Contemporary Greece: Deleuze, Guattari, and Performances of Transnational Power and Resistance before and after the Referendum of 2015. University of Maryland. Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. James Harding. 2018.

Harris, Molly. Leaving War Behind: War, Return, and Survival in Greek Tragedy. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Laura McClure. 2018.

INDIA

Culp, Amanda. At the Crossroads of the World: Sakuntala in Performance, 1840-Present. Columbia University. Theatre. Shayoni Mitra. 2017.

Narayan, Vivek V. Caste as Performance: Viewing the Dalit Movement in Contemporary Kerala through the Lens...