Spring 2025 Events
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A Poetry Reading with Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Jeff Russell
Professor Fred Moten invited Rachel Blau du Plessis and Jeff Russell for a poetry reading. This event was moderated by Ken Taylor.
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Senses of ensemble as reconfiguration of method and the social life of the question
Asher Gamedze walked us through ensemble as a backbone of black creative music, as a practice, as the personnel, as a historical formation, and as a research method he employed throughout his PhD dissertation. He explained how his research was built and depended on building connections, and how that makes it feel alive. The talk was moderated by Professor Fred Moten.
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BROWN BAG LUNCHEON TALK with Macklin Kowal
PS Alum (MA'13) Macklin Kowal joined us for snacks and chats about his journey into, within, and after his time in the department. Brought back to New York by the US Premiere of film The Visitor, in which he stars, he has been curating performance and studying in Athens, Greece. The film is centered in liberatory queer politics, addressing anti-immigrant attitudes in Great Britain. He chatted about pursuing a PhD in political theory without a previous degree in politics, navigating being an international student and artist, and how his time with professors here influenced his intellectual approach that blends art and academia seamlessly.
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BROWN BAG LUNCHEON TALK with Richard Schechner
Richard Schechner, one of the Performance Studies Department founders and the editor of TDR joined our second brown bag lunch conversation of the semester. After sharing potential research resources with each student during a round of introductions, Schechner opened the floor for anyone to ask questions about what has been on their mind about performance studies. Topics included the line between theory and practice, current state of performance art, and the power of performance and action.
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PRAXIS, INC: 2025
PRAXIS, INC: Innovate, Network, Collaborate is the department's annual community event in which we invite current students, faculty and alumni to come together and share their skills in the field of Performance Studies, engage in important conversations, and stay connected with colleagues and peers. This year's event included eight incredible workshops lead by current students and alumni, an installation by a current student, and a keynote talk by PS Alum Eleonora Fabião (M.A. '01, Ph.D. '06).
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Christian Nationalism and the Fever Dream of Fascism: A Conversation with Jeff Sharlet
Jeff Sharlet one of the most important contemporary chroniclers of Christian nationalism, joined Professor Ann Pellegrini in conversation to discuss to his most recent book, the New York Times bestseller The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War.
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Brown Bag Luncheon Talk with kristen holfeuer & Joanna evans on Devised Theater and Improvisational Research
PS Ph.D. Candidates Kristen Holfeuer and Joanna Evans joined us for a brown bag lunch chat on Devised Theater and Improvisational Research. They each shared details about their projects, including connections to their overall research, and what it means to work in an improvisational space within devised theatre. The conversation was centered around themes of history, duration, listening/response, material, drive, and friendship.
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¡Coyuntura!
We were joined by conjectural analysis-focused organizers and community workers, Annie Paradise and Manolo Callahan (Center for Convivial Research) and Dont Rhime (Ultra-red) in a discussion-based gathering, we asked, answered, and imagined how various points of contact between marginalization and militancy can be met with "fierce care" and collective healing.
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On the Desire to Wake
Professor Grace Lavery wove us through popular media's engagement with the "Desire to Wake". Engaging the English verb form of "wake" as something that happens TO us, rather than something we exert, Prof. Lavery explored how our understanding of gender is filtered through "waking". Inextricable from economics, race, and other factors of influence in culture, Prof. Lavery illustrated instances of "waking" in everything from AI in television, to first-person POV video games, to political conspiracies urging us to "wake up".
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9th Annual Curating Performance Symposium
The 9th Annual Curating Performance Symposium welcomed four incredible curators: Katherine Adams, Adrienne Edwards, T. Lax, and Diane Lima. We gathered to discuss their professional journeys, specific artistic interests, and how they interpret their roles as curators within larger institutions. With particular intersections of Black Diasporic Art and Brazilian Art, we were given glimpses of works they have brought to life in exhibits, and shown into their processes of negotiating architecture with creative work that stretches beyond buildings. Each of these curators also expressed their connections to the global and local community when choosing specific work and artists, and how to welcome audiences into engagement.
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