Why PS @ NYU?
What drew me to Performance Studies, both as a department and as a field, is its generosity. It’s home to this diverse lineage of thinkers that are really committed to a rigorous critical practice that seeks openings, movement, potentiality… that’s the way I have to work. And then there is also this really open generosity as to archive, genealogy and “objects” of study – the field is totally promiscuous, and bold, and under constant revision in this regard. And this generosity of the field infuses the daily interactions in the classroom…we share a genuine excitement about each other’s work that I think is quite rare in academia. The people here are really incredible – professors, students and staff – I feel so lucky to know them; and to have made the friendships I have here. I suspect that PS is home to a number of scholars who, if we had not found this space, may not have found our way to academia at all... Not just because we are misfits (although we are!), but because we are invested in multiple other artistic, political, intellectual, spiritual, and transnational worlds. The department welcomes this multiplicity. It encourages us to bring all of our histories and our commitments into the classroom, and into our work. This space is a sanctuary for unique critical engagement that does not settle or territorialize, and for working in commons and from the heart.