Shannon Steen

Shannon Steen writes and teaches about a variety of topics, but primarily about performance in its social and political contexts. She is currently at work on a new project, Civic Performance at the Threshold of Autocracy, on the role of theater and performance in the processes by which lay people in the US come to an understanding of Constitutionality. The first article from this project, "Constitutional Repertoires," was published with TDR in Summer 2026. Previous books include The Creativity Complex: Art, Tech, and the Seduction of an Idea(link is external) (University of Michigan Press, 2023),  Racial Geometries: The Black Atlantic, Asian Pacific, and American Theatre(link is external) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010; part of the Studies in International Performance Series), and  her co-edited AfroAsian Encounters: Culture, History, Politics(link is external) (New York University Press, 2006). Before joining the faculty at Berkeley, she taught for the M.F.A. acting program at A.C.T. in San Francisco, and in the English Department at Northwestern University.

Education: Ph.D. in Drama and Humanities, Stanford University