Alisa Zhulina

Education

B.A, M.A., Ph.D., Harvard University

Research Interests

Modern Drama, Theatre and Capitalism, Economic Theory, European Theatre and Performance

Courses Taught

Introduction to Theatre Studies; Major Playwrights: Anton Chekhov; Theatre of Capital; Contemporary European Theatre; Comedy: History and Theory; Theatre and War; Russian Theatre

Honors seminars: Love and Capitalism; Banned: Transgression and Censorship in the Theatre; Theatre and Virtual Reality

Alisa Zhulina is an artist-scholar, Assistant Professor of Theatre Studies, and the Director of Theatre Studies in the Department of Drama. She is also an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies. 

Her research interests include the intersections between theatre studies and economic theory, political theatre, modern drama, European theatre history, Eastern European performance, and new media. Her writings have appeared in Modernism/modernity, Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, Modern Drama, Performance Research, and several edited volumes. She is the author of Theater of Capital: Modern Drama and Economic Life (Northwestern University Press, 2024). In addition to her scholarly work, Zhulina is a playwright and theatre director. She is the founder of Cacolet Collective, a performance group dedicated to exploring alternative economies through performance and public art. Her plays have been produced by Exquisite Corpse Company, Floor Five Theatre Company, at Dixon Place, New Perspectives Theatre, the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, Festival de Teatro Alternativo in Bogotá, Colombia, and elsewhere.

Zhulina was an Assistant Professor Faculty Fellow in the Department of Drama from September 2015 to August 2018. In 2012-2013, she was a pensionnaire étrangère at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. She is a recipient of the Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities and the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies Dissertation Research Fellowship funded by the Krupp Foundation.