Diana Taylor

Professor; Academic Director

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    Spring 2018
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Diana Taylor

Diana Taylor is University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies and Spanish at NYU.  She is the author of Theatre of Crisis: Drama and Politics in Latin America (1991), which won the Best Book Award given by New England Council on Latin American Studies and Honorable Mention in the Joe E. Callaway Prize for the Best Book on Drama; of Disappearing Acts: Spectacles of Gender and Nationalism in Argentina's 'Dirty War', Duke U.P., 1997; and The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (Duke U.P., 2003), which won the ATHE Research Award in Theatre Practice and Pedagogy and the Modern Language Association Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize for the best book in Latin American and Spanish Literatures and Culture (2004).  The Archive and the Repertoire has been translated into Portuguese by Eliana Lourenço de Lima Reis (Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais 2012) and Spanish by Anabelle Contreras (Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Universidad Alberto Hurtado, 2015.) She published PERFORMANCE (Buenos Aires: Asuntos Impresos, 2012), a new revised version in English with Duke U.P. 2016; and Acciones de memoria: Performance, historia, y trauma, Peru: Fondo Editorial de la Asamblea Nacional de Rectores (2012).  She is co-editor of Estudios avanzados de Performance (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2011), Stages of Conflict: A Reader in Latin American Theatre and Performance (Michigan U. P., 2008), Holy Terrors: Latin American Women Perform (Duke U.P.,2004), Defiant Acts/Actos Desafiantes: Four Plays by Diana Raznovich (Bucknell U. P., 2002), Negotiating Performance in Latin/o America: Gender, Sexuality and Theatricality (Duke U.P., 1994), and The Politics of Motherhood: Activists from Left to Right, (University Press of New England, 1997). She has edited five volumes of critical essays on Latin American, Latino, and Spanish playwrights, and several digital books such as What is Performance Studies (co-edited with Marcos Steuernagle) and Dancing with the Zapatistas (Duke U.P. 2016) Her articles on Latin American and Latino performance have appeared in journals such as PMLA, Profession, Critical Inquiry, TDR: The Drama Review, Theatre Journal, e-misférica, Performing Arts Journal, Latin American Theatre Review, Estreno, Gestos, Signs, MLQ and other scholarly journals. She has also been invited to participate in discussions on the role of new technologies in the arts and humanities in important conferences and commissions in the Americas (i.e. ACLS Commission on Cyberinfrastructure). Taylor is the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005, an ACLS Digital Innovation Fellowship, 2013-14. She is Vice President of the Modern Language Association (MLA) and will be President in 2017. Diana Taylor is founding Director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, funded by the Ford, Mellon, Rockefeller, Rockefeller Brothers and Henry Luce Foundations.

http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/

Education

University of Washington

PhD 1982 - Comparative Literature

Seattle, Washington

 

National University of Mexico

Master of Arts 1974 - Letras Modernas (Comparative Literature)

Mexico City, Mexico

 

Université Aix-Marseille

Certificat d’Études Superieures

Marseille, France

 

University of the Americas

Bachelor of Arts 1971 - Creative Writing

Mexico City, Mexico

AREAS OF RESEARCH

• Latin American Theatre and Performance

• Hemispheric Studies

• Trauma Studies

• Memory Studies

• Digital Humanities

Awards & Distinctions

Book Awards:

• Premio Teatro del Mundo (Argentina, rubric: Labor en Edición) for PERFORMANCE, 2013.

• Modern Language Association Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize for the best book in Latin American and Spanish Literatures and Culture for The Archive and the Repertoire, 2004.

• Association of Theatre in Higher Education, Outstanding Book Award for The Archive and the Repertoire, 2004.

• New England Council of Latin American Studies (NECLAS) Best Book Award for Theatre of Crisis: Drama and Politics in Latin America, 1992.

• Joe E. Callaway Prize for the Best Book on Drama, Honorable Mention for Theatre of Crisis: Drama and Politics in Latin America, 1992.

 

Teaching Awards:

• Tisch School of the Arts nominee for the New York University Distinguished Teacher Award, 2004.

 

Research Awards:

• American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Digital Innovation Fellowship, 2013-14.

• Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar, 2012-13.

• John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 2005-2006.

• Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship. “Cultural Dimensions of the Mexican Transition” 2003-2004, of the Centro Regional de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias (CRIM), UNAM, Fall, 2003.

• Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, “Cultural Agency in the Americas.” Bellagio, October 2002.

• Salzburg Seminar Presidential Fellow, 1996.

• Invited Scholar: Seminario Teórico Internacional, "Teatro en el fin de siglo."  Part of "Yuyachkani 25th anniversary celebration, Peru. July, 1996.

• UCHRI, Director (with Juan Villegas) of University of California Humanities Research Institute residence program: Theatrical Transculturation.  Fall term, 1990.

• Participant: Dartmouth Humanities Institute, War and Gender, with resident scholar Klaus Theweleit (Male Fantasies), Spring term, 1990.

• Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Award funding travel and research in Argentina, Summer 1990.

• Faculty Fellowship, Dartmouth College, Fall, 1986.

• Fellowship, School of Criticism and Literary Theory, Summer, 1986, Dartmouth College.

• Mellon Foundation: Course Development for Interdisciplinary Studies: Funding to develop and teach RITUAL, MAGIC AND THE THEATRE, for "Ideas that shaped the Twentieth Century," Dartmouth College, Summer, 1986 and THEATRE, RITES AND SOCIAL CRISIS, 1987.

 

Major Grants Received for the Hemispheric Institute:

• Henry Luce Foundation, Religion and Politics in the Americas, Hemispheric Institute, $400,000. 2013-2016.

• Ford Foundation, "Networking Art Spaces and Artists in the Americas." $250,000.00, 2013-2015.

• Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Partnership Grant, “Canadian Consortium on Performance and Politics in the Americas,” $2,500,000, 2013-2020.

• C.F.I. Partnership Grant, “Canadian Consortium on Performance and Politics in the Americas,” $1,000,000, 2013-2020.

• Rockefeller Foundation, NYC Cultural Innovation Fund, $250,000. 2012-2014.

• Ford Foundation, "Networking Art Spaces and Artists in the Americas." $250,000.00, 2011-2013.

• Nathan Cummings Foundation, “New World Theatre: Documenting the Legacy.” $75,000.00, 2010-2011

• Ford Foundation funds redirected by UMass-Amherst in the form of a sub-awardfor work on building a digital repository for New WORLD Theater materials, $155,000.00.

• Henry Luce Foundation, Religion and Politics in the Americas, Hemispheric Institute, $440,000. 2009-2012.

• Ford Foundation, Transnational Arts Initiative, $260,000.00, 2009-10.

• Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Hemi-New York, $100,000, 2008-2010.

• Ford Foundation, $1,000,000 matching funds (NYU) for Hemispheric Institute Endowment, 2007,

• NYU, $1,000,000 matching funds (Ford) for Hemispheric Institute Endowment, 2007.

• Ford Foundation, $600,000 for operation of Centro Hemisferico/FOMMA (Chiapas, Mexico).

• Ford Foundation, continued funding for “Hemispheric Institute on Performance and Politics.” 2006-2006, $70,000.00

• Ford Foundation, continued funding for “Hemispheric Institute on Performance and Politics.” 2006-2008, $150,000.00

• Ford Foundation, continued funding for “Hemispheric Institute on Performance and Politics.” 2006-2008, $450,000.00

• Ford Foundation, continued funding for “Hemispheric Institute on Performance and Politics.” 2005-2006, $200,000.00

• Andrew Mellon Foundation grant for the development of the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library, 2005-2007, $740,000.00

• Ford Foundation, continued funding for “Hemispheric Institute on Performance and Politics.” 2004-2006, $300,000.00

• Ford Foundation, continued funding for “Hemispheric Institute on Performance and Politics.” 2003-2005, $450,000.00

• UNESCO grant to Hemispheric Institute’s “Intangible Heritage Working Group” (Chaired by Diana Taylor and Lourdes Arizpe) to develop guidelines re ‘performance festivals’ for the International Convention of Intangible Heritage. $27,000.00

• Rockefeller Foundation funding for “Hemispheric Institute on Performance and Politics.” 2000-2003, $240,000.00

• Ford Foundation, continued funding for “Hemispheric Institute on Performance and Politics.” 2000-2003. $650,000.00

• Ford Foundation, planning grant for “Hemispheric Institute on Performance and Politics,” a consortium of institutions, cultural institutions, scholars, artists and students. 1998-2000. $150,000.00

 

Other Honors and Awards for the Hemispheric Institute:

• Hemispheric Institute named one of the “top 9 amazing political art projects of 2010” http://artthreat.net/2010/12/9-political-art-projects/

• Diamond Web Award, 2002-2003 given by International Association of Web Masters and Designers for the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics site.

• Golden Globe Award, 2002-2003, for outstanding web design for the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics site.