Constantine Lignos
M.A. '17
![Constantine Lignos](/content/dam/tisch/performance-studies/PS_student_bio_photos/MAs17/Constantine Lignos.jpg.preset.square.jpeg?)
Constantine's primary research questions are: What is the potential intra-action of performance theories and Tibetan Buddhist onto-epistemology? How does the queerness of objects in Tibetan Buddhist phenomenological structures and their relationship to emptiness/no-thingness complicate the subject-object distinction that pervades much of post-Enlightenment thought within the Performance Studies canon? He examines what specters do in the formation of an individual/collective identity and how emptiness/absence operates within the construction of the ego. He studies the role of spirits in Tibetan ritual performances, geomancy, and contemporary Tibetan political performance art. Additionally, he tracks the first interactions between Chögyam Trungpa's "dharma art" in the West and the avant-garde movement of the 1960's in New York City.
He is the founder and artistic director of the Creation & Completion Project, a New York–based laboratory ensemble that recreates secular Tibetan meditation practices to extract what, at their core, may be repeatable and relevant for the contemporary American actor. He was awarded a $50,000 grant in 2013 to continue this research. He has been a member of Nalandabodhi New York since 2011 and a formal student of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche since 2013. He has taken classes with the Nitartha Institute and Naropa University where he began studying classical and colloquial Tibetan language.
Why PS @ NYU?
I chose to study at PS @ NYU because of the University's top-notch faculty who manage to both challenge and nurture their students regardless of their research interests. The theoretical knowledge that NYU has endowed me with is invaluable and its placement at the heart of New York City is unbeatable!