Graduate Students
Max Abner
B.S. in Performance Studies, Northwestern University
Max's work lies at the intersection of Indigenous studies, thing theory, and literary Frontier studies. His project begins with the belief that the canon of American naturalist literature can be viewed as the curated archive and script...Read more about Max Abner
Lena Chen
B.A. in Sociology, Harvard University; M.F.A. in Art, Carnegie Mellon University
Lena Chen is a Chinese American writer and artist examining the intersections of intimacy, technology, labor, and race. Informed by her experiences in the sex industry, her doctoral research centers the...Read more about Lena Chen
Talia Dixon
B.F.A. in Modern Dance, minor in Native American Studies, University of Utah
Talia is an enrolled member of the Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians. She aspires to research and document the performance of her peoples' culture and identity within both historic and contemporary contexts. Her...Read more about Talia Dixon
Jess Dorrance
M.A. in Art History, emphasis in Gender and Women’s Studies, McGill University; B.A. in Art History, English Literature, McGill University
Jess is a writer, curator, and Ph.D. student. She writes about the intersections between art, performance, and queer, feminist, and anti-racist...Read more about Jess Dorrance
Laila Guadalupe Espinoza
B.F.A. in Community Arts, minor in Individualized Interdisciplinary Studies, California College of the Arts; M.A. in Performance Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Laila Guadalupe is the daughter of a Roma mother and Mexican father and raised by her grandmother and aunties in...Read more about Laila Guadalupe Espinoza
Juliana Fadil-Luchkiw
B.A. Eugene Lang College, The New School; B.F.A. Parsons School of Design, The New School; M.A. Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University
Juliana's research deals with how dreams and fantasy are embodied in sociopolitical life under imperialism, in order to...Read more about Juliana Fadil-Luchkiw
Patricia Gomes
B.A. in Art History, Global Gender Studies, University at Buffalo; M.A. in Performance Studies, NYU
Patricia is a first-generation American from a Brazilian family who largely grew-up in upstate New York. Her research explores cultural geographies and performance theory for the...Read more about Patricia Gomes
Cati Kalinoski
B.F.A. in Drama, M.A. in Performance Studies, New York University
Cati Kalinoski is an academic and theater maker whose work examines the ways in which we theatricalize nature, particularly plants and extinction, and how we co-navigate survival, existence, and presence. With particular...Read more about Cati Kalinoski
Zihan Loo
M.F.A. in Studio Practice, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; M.A. in Performance Studies, New York University
Zihan is a queer artist from Singapore with a research focus on distended and pragmatic gestures of resistance under illiberal regimes. His work strives to reconcile the...Read more about Zihan Loo
Fernando Martinez
M.A. in Communication Studies, California State University Northridge; B.A. in Communication Studies, California State University Northridge
Fernando is a first-generation student, performer, and spoken-word artist. His research is centered in areas of performance, diversity, and equity...Read more about Fernando Martinez
Leila Mire
B.F.A. in Dance Performance, George Mason University's Honors College; M.A. in Performance Studies, New York University
Leila's research sits at the intersection of Middle Eastern studies, movement, sound, memory, performance studies, and decolonization. Particularly drawn toward the...Read more about Leila Mire
Dahlia Nayar
M.F.A. in Dance/Choreography, Hollins University
Dahlia's research and multimedia work investigates the performance of the quiet and seeks unlikely sources of virtuosity. She is a recipient of the Jacob Javits Fellowship, Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Choreography, and the...Read more about Dahlia Nayar
Pablo Paredes
B.A. in Ethnic Studies, minors in African American and Chicano Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Pablo is the son of Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian migrants, a US Navy veteran/war resister, student-parent, spoken word artist and Bombero from the South Bronx, New York. With...Read more about Pablo Paredes
Vincente Perez
B.A. in Anthropology, Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies, University of Chicago
Vincente Perez (he/they) is a Black Mexican-American performance poet, scholar, and writer working at the intersection of Poetry, Hip-Hop, and Black digital praxis. They examine the ways that
...Read more about Vincente PerezEvan Sakuma
Evan Sakuma (he/they) 'comes out' from the East Asian ethnic enclave of Monterey Park, CA. Their work, hardened further by the 'Queerantine', centers the performance of care within queer communities of color. While a theory head at times, Evan incorporates praxis of 'Gaysian' community building...Read more about Evan Sakuma
Crystal Song
B.A. in History, Ethnicity & Race Studies, Columbia University
Crystal's work aims to map the shifting contours of Asian America through contemporary pop culture and performance. She is particularly interested in how model minority imperatives are embodied, contested, and...Read more about Crystal Song
Rebecca Struch
B.A. in Theatre Arts, Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, University of Minnesota; M.A. in Applied Theatre Arts, University of Southern California
Rebecca is a theatre artist, educator, and organizer with a commitment to community engagement through participatory practice. Her...Read more about Rebecca Struch
Jennifer Tamayo
B.A. in Human Development and Fundamentals: Issues & Texts, University of Chicago; M.F.A. in Creative Writing-Poetry, Louisiana State University
Born in Bogotá, Jennif(f)er is Nancy’s daughter. She is a queer, latinx writer and performer whose research attends to (the performativity...Read more about Jennifer Tamayo
Silk Worm
Silk Worm's work deals with dance and trans studies. Her practice as both an artist and researcher emerges from years of engagement with the Bay Area’s queer nightlife as a drag queen, DJ, and producer. At Berkeley, she intends to research butoh and its relationship to Bay Area...Read more about Silk Worm
Jaclyn Zhou
B.S. in Journalism, Asian Languages and Cultures, Northwestern University
Jaclyn's current research focuses on race, tourism and digital technology. Other interests include Asian and Asian American popular cultures, animality studies, science fiction, queer studies, and high strangeness...Read more about Jaclyn Zhou