Program Mission & Description

Grounded in both new theoretical approaches and traditional research methods, the PhD provides students with rigorous scholarly foundations in history, critical theory, literature, and pedagogy, as well as personalized artistic experiences. This degree emphasizes theatre and performance research as a set of practices: the practice of scholarly research and writing, including practice-based research; the practice of pedagogy; and the practices of directing, devising, dramaturgy, and design. Our focus on diverse practices and interdisciplinary research prepares graduates of Theatre & Performance Research for careers within and beyond the academy.

PhD students in Theatre and Performance Research enjoy the resources of a top-tier research institution, the close mentorship of faculty in a small degree program, and the student and faculty-produced world-class performances of the Florida State University School of Theatre. Our internationally recognized faculty pursue a broad array of creative and research projects: Jerzy Grotowski and the Workcenter; performances of history and cultural memory in the United States; the Global South; Middle East North Africa performance; histories of regional theatre and the Federal Theatre Project; economic policy and the arts; trauma, politics, and sexual violence and their intersections with performance; musical theatre and opera; queer theatre; and graduate theatre education. Our critical approaches encompass performance & cultural studies, intercultural performance theory, postcolonial theories, ethnography, digital humanities, interdisciplinary art-science and socially engaged performance, museum studies, sexuality studies, phenomenology, and violence & trauma studies.