Introduction

About the Course Instructor

Professor Anita Gonzalez is the interim chair of the Department of Dance and head of Theatre Studies at the University of Michigan’s School for Music, Theater, and Dance (SMTD). Professor Gonzalez also leads the Global Theatre and Ethnic Studies minor in SMTD and LS&A. She introduces students to literature and performance histories of diverse cultures and uses studio practice to develop proficiency in creating new work from diverse cultural perspectives. Her research and publication interests are in the fields of ethnic performance, 19th-century theatre, maritime performance, and the way in which performance reveals histories and identities in the Americas and in transnational contexts. Her research and publication interests are in the fields of intercultural performance and ethnic studies, particularly the way in which performance reveals histories and identities in the Americas and in transnational contexts.

Professor Gonzalez is also a director who has staged more than 52 productions during the course of her career. She views theatrical practice as a laboratory for artists and audiences to explore new ways of interacting and considering world issues at a personal level. Her work has appeared on PBS national television and at Dixon Place, The Workshop Theatre, HereArts, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Ballet Hispanico, and other venues. She has been awarded a residency at Rockefeller’s Bellagio Center (2003) and has completed three Senior Scholar Fulbright grants. Gonzalez earned her PhD in theater/performance studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1997). She is an associate member of Stage Directors and Choreographers, a member of The Dramatists Guild, the National Theatre Conference, and the Player’s Club, as well as the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the American Society for Theatre Research, and the Society of Dance History Scholars.

You can read more on Professor Gonzalez on her faculty profile at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance.