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CS92PROD
Advanced Topics in Performance Studies

THEA 316
Spring 2024
Section: 01  
Course Cluster and Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate, Queer Studies

What does "theory" have to do with "performance"? Furthermore, what is the relationship between thinking and doing ("theory" and "praxis")? If performance studies shifts the frame from an emphasis on being to one of doing, then what does it mean to "do" theory? In this class we will engage works that orbit "the live." We will use performance as a lens to explore questions of liveness, presence, the body, and affect. We will look to both live/recorded performances and recent work in the field of performance studies to explore the cultural significance of performance in our current moment and location. This version of Advanced Topics in Performance Studies is particularly interested in intersectional work between performance and queer of color critique, Indigenous studies, black studies, environmental justice, and transformative justice. In class students will read new work in the field of performance studies, and should be prepared to engage with the activist potential of performance.

While we will engage performance in a number of creative and experimental ways, student projects will take the shape of semester-long critical research papers. Come with or without an idea you want to work on, and we will spend the semester workshopping that idea into a developed paper. This class is especially recommended for anyone interested in doing an honors thesis in theater.

Readings and viewings will include: José Muñoz, Ashon T Crawley, Tavia Nyong'o, Sandra Ruiz, Lou Cornum, Vick Quezada, Judit Butler, Ivan Ramos, Eve Sedgwick, Emily Johnson, The Forge Project, Walter D. Mignolo, Billy Ray Belcourt, Marquis Bey, Christina Sharpe, Morgan Bassichis, Jeremy O. Harris, Miranda Haymon, and others.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA THEA
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Requirement for: (CSCT)(STS)(THEA)
Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74%

Last Updated on NOV-21-2024
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