Courses

This course applies perspectives from Performance Studies to the study of history. Whether we are looking at historical actors or those who interpret their actions for future generations, performance offers a creative and critical lens through which to engage with the past. Throughout the term we will explore how individuals who live in different times and places can be likened to performers on a stage. Concurrently, we will interrogate how historians can also be likened to performers as they gather evidence and narrate the past. Performance Studies provides a critical lens to explore answers to questions such as: Whose voices are heard and archived? How do ideas of performance illuminate the intersections of history with identities and institutions? What are the racialized, gendered, and cultural performances that shape historical memory, structures, and societies? We will rethink what it means to perform, explore why performative processes matter, question how historical memory connects with performances of power, challenge binary framings, and complicate dominant narratives. With a performance based approach, students will explore a broad range of performances including but not limited to films, social media, dance and theater, visual art, political events, protest, and everyday happenings.