TDPS Speaker Series

The TDPS Speaker Series presents a diverse range of lectures and conversations with artists and scholars from across the fields of theater, dance, and performance studies. Events generally take place on select Thursday afternoons throughout the academic year. All events are free and open to the public.

Please check this page or our calendar for upcoming Speaker Series events. To receive event announcements, subscribe to our email list.

Previous Series Highlights

Experiments in Joy: A Black Feminist Trajectory

In this dynamic artist talk, Gabrielle Civil discusses her own trajectory as a Black feminist performance artist, highlighting key collaborations and inspirations, and promoting Black feminist joy as a creative practice.

Against Isolation: Pandemic Connections through the Arts

The 2020 pandemic scattered us into disconnected spaces, interrupting our physical interactions along with our art-making. Responding to these times, performance makers Erika Chong Shuch and Amara Tabor-Smith have each created intimate connections within their communities of artistic practice, among isolated elders and individuals.

Racialized Embodiment & Political Life Beyond Resistance

Anne Anlin Cheng is Professor of English and American Studies at Princeton University and affiliated with the Program in Gender and Sexuality and the Committee on Film Studies. Kevin Quashie is a professor in the Department of English at Brown University who teaches Black cultural and literary studies.

Dancing with Robots: Expressivity in Natural and Artificial Systems

Movement seems to encode information. How does this work? We know that animals, including humans, use the motion of counterparts to produce coordinated, social behaviors. But how do we resolve the discrete measures of communication and information theory with the continuous laws of motion and mechanics?

The House of the Spirits: Isabel Allende in conversation with Caridad Svich

Author Isabel Allende and Caridad Svich, theater-maker and playwright, discuss The House of the Spirits in its may iterations: novel, play, and the staged performance by the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, directed by Michael Moran at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Playhouse. Michael Moran moderates.