WHY PS @ NYU
The program has continually enabled me to make enlightening new discoveries, both inside and outside of my primary area of specialization in Dance Studies. Particularly, how other disciplines such as theories of spectatorship, media studies, queer theory and affect studies directly intersect, inform and generate new perspectives for me to analyze and document dance. Over six semesters of coursework, then a semester of area exams, followed by a semester developing my dissertation proposal and its defense, I've arrived upon a dissertation subject that investigates these exciting new perspectives.
I was initially drawn to the program because I had, over several years, attended dynamic, provocative lectures and performance events, knew its esteemed reputation as the first program of its kind and was familiar with the work of two of my soon to be mentors, André Lepecki and the late Jose Esteban Muñoz. Before I entered the program, I was working on a film project that involved Muñoz as an interview subject, critical to my research on a visual and performance artist. Muñoz saw in me and my body of creative work the affinities and similarities to the Performance Studies program. This enabled me to understand it was a place I'd soon call home.
NYU Performance Studies is a community for me. An inspiring community of brilliant, impassioned thinkers, scholars, and artists. The rigor of the program, led by a demanding faculty comprised only of the leaders in the field, consistently challenges me to do the best possible work I can in a supportive, nurturing environment. The program's prolific scholarship, ongoing discourse in an array of the most diverse, important and timely new explorations in Performance Studies is a fascinating adventure. The intimacy created by the small size of the department allows for an amazing exchange of refreshingly differing ideas, voices, research and methodologies. All facilitate my realizing my greatest potential. A potential that through consistent study, refinement of my work and expansive possibilities afforded me by the rich curriculum, has allowed me to achieve. I venture ever closer to becoming the scholar-artist I entered the program to discover. NYU Performance Studies is a kind of welcoming, utopia enclave at the forefront of the field; from my colleagues, to the guidance of the faculty and the ever-helpful administration.