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Program
Description Admission
Information
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The deadline
for admission and fellowship consideration for Fall 2008 is Friday, December 7,
2007. Dear Applicant: We are delighted in your interest in the Ph.D. program in Performance Studies, and hope you will find the enclosed materials helpful (please see below). The program is an unusually flexible one, designed to prepare students for advanced research in the field of theater and performance studies. As you know, the program at Berkeley draws its strengths from a Graduate Group of faculty in disciplines ranging across a host of fields and departments; we encourage students to take the initiative in developing a program of coursework that will lead both to a solid command of a given field and to the kind of interdisciplinary research characteristic of the strongest work in theater and performance studies today. Although it's certain that your interests and plans will change, it's important to us to have as clear a sense as possible of who you are, of your intellectual and artistic interests and accomplishments, and of the critical orientation of your research. Your entire application--GRE, grades, letters of recommendation, Statement of Purpose, writing sample--will be read by the admissions committee and some portions of the application receive particularly close scrutiny. We would like to encourage you to use the Statement of Purpose and Statement of Personal History on the application form to outline where you've been, and your orientation to future research. In our effort to assess whether a program like ours is a good "fit" for you, it's very helpful to have a strong sense of the kind of work you are thinking about, your intellectual and critical style, and overall preparation for Ph.D. study. We are committed to developing a diverse and energetic research community in the program, and are eager to recruit students with a range of intellectual, social, and cultural backgrounds, and the diversity of our faculty is an important asset in this regard. Strong applications, then, usually address potential areas of research in the field of theater and performance studies today: given the depth and range of our faculty, we are interested in students working on both past and present performance traditions, on literary and non-literary forms of performance, and on a range of theoretical and methodological issues ranging across the spectrum of contemporary ethnic, cultural, and performance studies. Please feel free, too, to attach a page to the cover of your writing sample--usually a paper written for an advanced undergraduate or graduate course, or part of your M.A. thesis--contextualizing the sample. You might let us know if it has been taken from a longer project; or if it exemplifies the kind of work you'd like to continue to explore. There is a great deal of excitement about the program, and about the students who have joined us thus far. We hope you will take the time to carefully read over the website. We are happy to speak with you more about the questions you might have about the program. We look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Shannon Jackson,
Head Graduate Advisor, Fall semester 2007
PROGRAM
DESCRIPTION The Ph.D. program is designed as a five-year program (10 semesters). It offers core courses, but no predetermined areas of emphasis. Each student determines an individual research agenda within the broader field of theater and performance studies, using faculty resources to develop both a clear field specialization and a sense of interdisciplinary innovation. Students from any humanities field, including theater and performance studies, are encouraged to apply, and students with either a B.A. or M.A. may be admitted to the program. Students may be awarded a Master of Arts degree after completion of requirements. See page five. PREPARATION AND ADMISSIONS Candidates holding a Bachelor's degree in theater, literature, performance studies, dance, or any appropriate humanities-related field are eligible to apply for admissions. Candidates with a degree on another field, but with an M.A. in drama or theater arts, or with an M.F.A. in any of the theater arts are also eligible. The Graduate Group is particularly interested in applicants who have already formulated a specific focus of interest, including professional theater practitioners who demonstrate capacity for and training in advanced scholarly study. The Graduate Application for Admission and Fellowships for UC Berkeley is available on-line beginning September 10, 2007 for the upcoming Fall 2008 admission cycle: http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/. The deadline for admission and fellowship consideration is Friday, December 7, 2007. Applicants should expect to hear about the status of their application in late March or earlier. A non-refundable application fee of $60.00 ($80.00 for international applications) must be submitted by credit card via the on-line application. In addition to the completed Graduate Application for Admission and Fellowships, you are required to submit:
PROGRAM OF
STUDY EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE ADVISING REQUIRED
COURSE WORK GRADUATE
INTRODUCTORY/RESEARCH COLLOQUIA CORE GRADUATE
SEMINARS THE THEATER
PRACTICE REQUIREMENT THE FOREIGN
LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT OPPORTUNITIES
IN TEACHING AND RESEARCH THE REVIEW
PROCESS QUALIFYING
EXAMINATION PROCESS 2. In consultation with the potential dissertation chair and orals committee members, the student will develop reading lists in three concentrations; typically, three committee members oversee the student's development of the three reading lists and evaluate his/her performance on that part of the examination; in some cases, field exams may be co-chaired. Faculty members may, as part of the student's preparation, invite the student to write a brief statement outlining the field, or a "review of the literature" statement, or in other ways (regular meetings, reading journal, etc.) assist the student in developing a self-conscious mastery of the field of concentration. The potential dissertation chair may, of course, be the examiner in one of these fields. This work may be undertaken as formal coursework; in fact, we recommend that 2 of the 3 examination fields be pursued as formal "independent study" courses with members of the examining committee (under 602 or 299 numbers). If this course is to be counted toward the 12-course program of study, however, it must conclude with a formal seminar paper, and so must be taken as a GRADED 4-unit independent study. After completing the required coursework, students may use independent-study courses to prepare examination fields and/or to work on writing the dissertation prospectus draft with members of their committee. These courses need not be graded, but taken pass/fail. 3. By the end of the third year, the student must take the Qualifying Examination demonstrating her/his knowledge in three selected areas that contextualize the dissertation. The application for the Qualifying Examination must be submitted to the Graduate Division at least three weeks before the examination; at the same time, the student should distribute a working draft of his/her prospectus to each member of the orals committee along with reading lists for each field. The written portion of the qualifying exam takes place two to three weeks prior to the scheduled oral exam, usually over a long weekend in April from 9am Friday to 5pm the following Monday. Each field examiner will give the student a choice of 2 to 3 questions for an open book essay of 10 to 12 pages, sending these choices to the orals chair and graduate assistant over email 24 hours before the start time of the exam. Students will be allowed to receive the three sets of essay choices over email from the graduate assistant and to send the completed written exam back to the orals chair and graduate assistant over email as well. 4. An oral exam follows the written exam. All committee members receive copies of all three written essays from the graduate assistant. Each committee member will send a confidential response to the orals chair who will confirm the student's readiness to take the oral exam and alert the student to any concerns expressed by his/her examiners. Confidential exchange between committee members and the orals chair should be copied to the graduate assistant. In the oral exam, each field normally receives 20 minutes of questioning, with the fourth member invited to ask a question at the end. The student adjourns while the committee decides whether s/he has passed the exam, whether further discussion is necessary, or whether the student should be required to re-take the exam. The student's qualifying status lasts for up to 18 months. Qualifying
Examination Calendar for Third Year August/ September Dissertation director chosen, examiners chosen, preliminary reading lists drafted; students and evaluators have made agreements on how to prepare. At least two of the three fields should be conducted as a credit-worthy course of study, meeting, note-taking, annotated bibliography and/or other writing with the examiner. (For committee members outside the Grad Group, please show them this document so that they are aware of the requirements and calendar.) This can be done as 602 directed reading, as an independent study, or as part of a course taken with the professor. Note: If this credited course of study is ALSO to count as an elective, then the graduate student needs to produce a research paper worthy of a four-unit graduate seminar. This essay can fulfill the requirements of the elective; however, the central question of final seminar essay should be different from the central questions that the field examiner asks in the written portion of the qualifying exam. September through December Examiner meetings and/or writing to prepare special field and to refine reading lists. Preliminary draft of the prospectus generated with dissertation advisor. This can be done as an independent study or as a 602 or informally, depending upon the students' unit count. NOTE: The writing of the prospectus cannot count as an elective. February Early in the semester preceding the exam, the reading lists for all fields should be finalized and another prospectus draft composed. Invite critique of prospectus from committee members. While the document on the Oral Examination Process says that the reading lists may "under go further revision," we strongly encourage you to be able to commit to your reading lists by this point. As should be clear from the calendar above, the finalized reading lists should be the result of a longer process of reading and writing throughout the year (rather than the start of a process of reading and writing). By enforcing clarity and rigor up to this point, everyone will have a more satisfying and less stressful exam experience. March Continued study of special fields. Continued drafting of prospectus with dissertation advisor and with committee members. Committee members should feel comfortable enough the student's mastery of the field by this point. A packet with the working draft of the prospectus is distributed to the committee and to the graduate assistant, detailing the dissertation's aims, orientation, methods, potential contribution, and the reading lists for the three fields of the examination. April to May Qualifying Exam. Dates for the written portion of the exam and the oral exam should be confirmed by this point and room space for the oral exam reserved. a. Written Exam Each field examiner sends 2 to 3 possible questions for a 10 to 12 page essay to the orals chair and the graduate assistant 24 hours in advance of the start time of the exam. The orals chair then composes and sends the entire exam to the student at 9am, usually a Friday. The student writes three "open book" essays over the course of three and a half days, returning the completed exam over email or in hard copy by 5pm, usually on a Monday. Students should make sure that every committee member understands the process for sending essay questions and has the contact information for the orals chair and graduate assistant. Upon passing the Qualifying Examination, the student will be Advanced to Candidacy. THE DISSERTATION DIRECTOR and PUBLIC PRESENTATION In consultation with the Dissertation Director, the student will then nominate for the Head Graduate Adviser's approval a Dissertation Committee that will consist of the Dissertation Director and two other faculty members. At least one member of the Committee will be a Core faculty member of the Group who holds an appointment in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, and two members of the Dissertation Committee must hold Core appointments in the Graduate Group faculty; the third member must either be from outside the Group or be an Affiliated Graduate Group member. The composition of the Committee is subject to the approval of the Graduate Dean, acting on behalf of the administrative committee of the Graduate Council. The Director and the outside member must belong to the Academic Senate. One member of the Committee may be non-Senate, with the approval of the Graduate Dean. The student will then develop a final draft of the prospectus and prepare a public presentation of his/her proposed research. Ideally, the prospectus will be finished and approved by the Dissertation Director over the summer following the qualifying exam, allowing the student to schedule a public presentation for the beginning of the fall. The student has up until one year after the completion of the Qualifying Exam to distribute the prospectus and to schedule a public presentation. The presentation shows the disciplinary integration and the possible scope of the dissertation in light of a few well-chosen examples. The presentation will last approximately forty minutes, to be followed by a short question-and-answer period. This presentation will allow the student an opportunity to set a portion of her/his work before the public, while also providing her/him with the experience of preparing and delivering public oral presentations. While it should include some of the general claims of the dissertation, this presentation will in most cases focus on some local issues and examples for concretized discussion. Upon the completion of the dissertation and its acceptance by the Dissertation Committee, the student will be recommended for the Ph.D.; there will be no dissertation defense. Although this timetable is the formal timetable of the program, students are encouraged to have the prospectus well underway before the Qualifying Examination, and indeed to have selected a potential dissertation director well before that time as well. An ideal scenario would be to hold the Qualifying Examination, and be able to hold a prospectus exam shortly thereafter, perhaps within the same semester . MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE Students may elect to earn a Master of Arts degree as they progress through the Ph.D. program by completing M.A. requirements. In the event that a student leaves the Ph.D. program before completion of Ph.D. requirements, she/he may earn a Master of Arts degree by completing the M.A. requirements. A student who enters the Ph.D. program with a Master of Arts degree may not earn another M.A. in this program, except by petition to the Head Graduate Adviser (i.e., students who enter with a M.A. in a related field--English, History, etc.--who wish to earn the M.A. in Performance Studies may do so, through petition to the Head Graduate Adviser). The University does not award duplicate degrees. MASTER'S REQUIREMENTS: 1. Completion of five courses (equaling at least 20 semester units) in performance studies, not counting the Core Colloquia. These five courses must include the three Core Seminars and two electives approved by the Head Graduate Adviser, one of these electives must be a theater practice elective. 2. Completion of a master's thesis. The master's thesis will consist of a paper written for a seminar and expanded to article-length; the thesis will be read and approved by at least three readers: although all three readers may be Graduate Group faculty, it is preferable (though not required) to have one reader drawn from outside the Group faculty. PROGRESS AND FUNDING Students in the Ph.D. in Performance Studies are required to make clear and timely progress toward the degree; retention in the program and reappointment to funded positions (teaching, research, fellowship) will depend on the demonstration of timely progress. The program defines timely progress as follows: Completion of all required coursework: end of 5th semester Qualifying examination taken successfully: end of 6th semester Submission of dissertation prospectus/public presentation: end of 6th semester, beginning of 7th semester. Beginning with the fall 2001 semester, the Graduate Division is awarding a year-long fellowship--the Normative Time Fellowship--to all students who have passed the qualifying examination and are admitted to candidacy in "normative time." The Graduate Group in Performance Studies has defined "normative time" as the 6th semester of full-time study. Students are expected to be eligible for the Normative Time Fellowship in their fourth year if they wish to be funded by the Department in their fifth year of study. Students in the program are normally nominated for University funding, and are typically awarded a package of support: fellowship, teaching, and research support derived from university and departmental sources. Students are typically offered four years of support, which depends on continued demonstrable progress; a fifth year of support may be granted by the department; although students may be nominated to the University for dissertation support in the sixth year, students are not normally funded by the department for a sixth year. CURRENT STUDENTS'
INTERESTS: Lara Shalson, M.A. Theater, CUNY Graduate Center; B.A. Psychology, UC Berkeley: body and performance art; endurance, ordeal, and durational performance; activism and protest performance; feminist and queer theory; psychoanalysis and phenomenology. Monica Stufft, B.A. English and Theater, Muhlenberg College: Late nineteenth and early twentieth century American theater and performance, popular culture and cultural theory, feminist and performance theory, historiography and historical methodologies. Joanne Taylor, B.A. English and Music, UC Berkeley: Filmic performance; American popular cinema; phenomenological responses to film; 20th century acting and directing theories; Shakespeare in the 20th and 21st centuries; editing theory; translation theory and performance; Brecht; Epic and Dialectical theaters.
Nina Billone, B.S. Performance Studies, Gender Studies, Northwestern University: theater for social change, gender theory, race theory, performance ethnography, and prison cultures. Carrie Gaiser Casey, B.A. Smith College, Religious Studies: twentieth century dance historiography; genealogies of dance practice; women, feminism, and ballet; theories of cultural transmission. Jennifer Johung, B.A. English and Playwriting, Brown University; M.A. Art and Performance Theory, University of Surrey; postgraduate research, Oxford University, modern poetic drama, postmodern performance, performance notation; Current research: site-specific art installations, nomadic and portable architecture, modern to contemporary art and architectural practice, design and functionalism Khai Thu Nguyen , M.A Humanities, Stanford; B.A. Early Modern Studies, Stanford: Postcolonial theory and performance, Asian and Asian American performance, Vietnamese postcoloniality: performances of nation, gender and identity in communism and renovation. Joy Crosby, B.A. Comparative History of Ideas, University of Washington: early modern French and English theater and theoretical interests in ritual, the sacred, death, and representation. Emine Fisek , B.A., Theater and English Literature, Swarthmore College: twentieth century francophone performance, theories of embodiment, subjectivity and postcoloniality, shadow puppetry. Lane Harwell, B.A. Philosophy, Princeton: philosophical precedents and contemporary manifestations of power in performance and visual cultures. Kelly Rafferty, B.A. English, Tulane University; feminist theory and performance art, new media, relational, and site-specific performance, reproduction and biotechnology in science and technology studies. Michelle Baron, Brandeis University, B.A. English and Theatre; M.A. Performance Studies, UC Berkeley: queer theory, transnational queer and feminist studies, critical race theory, Latin@/Chican@ studies, performativity and affect, mourning and memorialization, pageant drama and the performance of nation/statehood. Nilgun Bayraktar, Sabanci University, Turkey, B.A. Cultural Studies: transnational migration; globalization; aesthetics and politics of the social experience of migration; artistic labor performed by the "migrant" artists, filmmakers and writers; Turkish-German cultural production; pre- and post-coup Turkish aesthetics and performance; gender and sexuality studies; film studies; memory and trauma; visual culture; cultural politics. Catherine (Kate) Ming T'ien Duffly, B.A. History, Macalester; M.A. Performance Studies, NYU: current research interests include: race and gender theory; social protest performance; cultural geography and spatial scale; the politics and performance of food. Kate Kokontis, Yale University, B.A. Studio Art Centers Int'l, Post-Bacc: visuality and performativity; critical race theory; theories and practices of memory and history; relationality and intersubjectivity; ethnography and oral history; theories and practices of space and movement (diaspora, immigration, pilgrimage, nomadism, site-specificity, transnationality, encounter). Charlotte McIvor, Muhlenberg College, B.A. in Theatre and English: colonial and Postcolonial Irish and Indian (with an emphasis on West Bengal) theatre and performance as understood in relation to the development of the modern theatre, comparative colonialisms, transnational flows, race politics and gendered contexts of production. Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Shane Boyle, Duke University, B.A. English; European protest culture; contemporary activist art and theatre; transnational feminism, critical theory; Off-Off Broadway, terrorism. Ariel Osterweis Scott, Columbia University, BA. with Departmental Honors in Anthropology, Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude. Dancer and choreographer; academic interests include transnational dance collaborations; contemporary West African choreography and training, with a focus on Senegal; intersection of hip-hop and concert dance; race, sexuality, and disability studies; contemporary dance; and experimental ethnography. Chia-Yi (Jessie) Seetoo, B.A. Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University; M.A. Theatre, Northwestern University: Chinese modernity; Asian performance in the global context; Dance and theatre training; Martial arts performance and film.
Marc Boucai, B.A. Theatre and English, Swarthmore College; graduate studies with L'Ecole Internationale de Jacque le Coq: performer, movement specialist, director, and critic. His research is varied, including studies of "kinetic ritual," pilgrimage and performance, and performance historiographies in LGBT communities, recasting concepts of memory and heritage. April Sizemore-Barber, B.A. English, Oberlin College: comes with a range of experiences as a performer, director, producer, and critic in the field of theater and social change, with a focus on queer performance. Her primary research interest, however, is in South African theater, museums and visual art as they relate to changing national identities, traumas, and conceptions of justice. Scott Wallin, B.A.,Dramatic Arts and Cultural Anthropology, UC Santa Barbara; M.S.W. Social Welfare, UC Berkeley; M.A. Performance Studies, New York University: Past practical experience focuses on: theatrical stage direction and performance; international grassroots development; psychiatric social work. Research interests include: social identity of race, ethnicity, and class; performance theory; theories and practice of directing and acting for the stage. Brandon Woolf , B.A. Philosophy and English, Columbia University; Interests include: off-Broadway directing/producing, Brecht, modern British & European drama, theatre for social change, reception theory, (history of) aesthetic theory, critical theory, the theatre audience, and cultural policy.
GRADUATE GROUP IN PERFORMANCE STUDIES FACULTY: Core Faculty: Core Faculty have the responsibilities and privileges of Affiliated Faculty. They may be asked to crosslist courses in the program. In addition, they may direct dissertations and may serve periodically on the Executive Committee (which sets policy, conducts admissions, and reviews student progress). Core Faculty regularly attend Performance Studies program events--the welcoming reception, Lab Run, the fall lectures by Ph.D. students in advance of their qualifying exams. They constitute the voting faculty of the Group, and are recommended to the Graduate Dean for appointment to the Graduate Group in Performance Studies.
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