Rikki Amani, PS BA '25
Performance Studies alum Rikki Amani (BA ’25) will begin doctoral studies in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley this fall. Below, she reflects on her NYU journey and future academic plans.
What was the PhD application process like?
Over the Fall semester, I worked on graduate school applications with the support of Misty De Berry and Zac Easterling. They, as well as Camila Arroyo, wrote my recommendation letters and offered me sound advice on the path to pursuing Performance Studies at the graduate level. By winter break, I was interviewing with prospective departments! When the spring semester came around, I had another Zoom interview with UC Berkeley, and a week later found I was accepted to their program and offered the Chancellor's Fellowship. I was really excited as it was my top choice! Over spring break, I got to fly there for a few days and explore the campus. I met with my future cohort (I'm the youngest student in the department!) and I enjoyed meeting my future professors of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies. It was great meeting everyone there and hearing the connections and old stories between their program at Cal and our program here at NYU!
How did PS at NYU prepare you for PhD programs?
Studying Performance Studies in the undergraduate program here at NYU prepared me for a PhD and, in turn, a professional career in the academies by providing an interdisciplinary and rigorous learning environment. Taking classes like Performance in the City and different Topics courses like Avant-Garde Black Feminist Theory with Misty De Berry, Performance and Politics with Alia Al-Sabi, and plenty of other core courses gave me the opportunity to come across the foundational materials and texts of performance studies through diverse lenses and once in a PhD program, I'm sure I will be able to look back at what I've already learned with the opportunity to explore more in depth. In this way, coming from a Performance Studies background, especially in the context of the historical background of NYU's Performance Studies program, provided me the advantage of already knowing the big names, key-terms, and primary contexts of the subject.
What do you plan to study at UC Berekely?
My research at Berkeley will focus on the inherited archive of my grandmother, a nightlife performer, vocalist and songwriter. I will research the objects of my inheritance through the lense of Performance Studies leaning into the afterlives of her left behind objects like hair brushes, photos, written music and old film tape inquiring further into the lives and performances of Black American aesthetic practitioners of the 50's, 60's, and 70's, developing questions and creative explorations of their relationships to Affect Theory, Black Radical Tradition, Black Feminist Theory, and other theories rooted in the lineage of Performance Studies.