Graduate Program

In the past decade, graduate study in the field of drama, theater, and performance studies has undergone an energetic renovation, and “performance” itself has become critical to scholarship and research across the humanities. At the same time, this disciplinary ferment has demanded a much higher degree of specialization, and of scholarly rigor from Ph.D. candidates seeking academic careers at the college and university level. The Graduate Group Ph.D. in Performance Studies at Berkeley is at the cutting edge of this epistemic shift. Centered in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, it is composed of an unrivalled faculty drawn from across the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Doctoral students have the opportunity to engage in performance activities that complement dissertation research, which itself ranges across the contemporary horizon of drama, theater, and performance studies. Currently, Ph.D. students are working on subjects that range from postcolonial theatricality to the performance of medicine, from puppets and performing objects to contemporary Shakespearean acting; from the discourses of Latino/a theater to feminist geography in contemporary drama. Students admitted to the Ph.D. program are offered a full package of support, including fellowship and teaching assistantships.