Doctoral Program in Theatre and Performance Studies
The Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies, launched together with the Brown/Trinity Consortium in 2002, builds on the strength of the long-standing Brown Master’s Program that historically provided the field of theatre with many excellent scholars. The Ph.D. program stresses research and scholarship, in theatre history, theory and criticism, and performance studies. It is an ideal degree for students interested in the intersections between artistry and scholarship as there are many excellent opportunities to collaborate with artists ad as well as opportunities to develop scholarship in interdisciplinary modalities. The program is committed to providing students with a firm grasp of the fields of theatre studies and performance studies and an understanding of the historical underpinnings both of theatre practice and of performance scholarship. This is to say that Brown’s Ph.D. has a strong commitment both to theatre history and to the academic histories informing the “broad spectrum” of performance studies. The program is committed to helping to place students in academic positions, should they so desire, upon completion of the program. Faculty work together with students to prepare them best for the requirements of the job market, even as faculty work hard to foster each student’s individual, often less market-driven passions.
Graduate Students in Theatre and Performance Studies at Brown University benefit from the flexibility of Brown’s graduate system that allows opportunities to take classes throughout the university as well as with distinguished field faculty. The libraries at Brown provide exceptional resources for research and house several special collections, among them the Harris Collection of American Drama and Poetry; the Smith Collection of Conjuring, Magicana, and Popular Entertainment Forms, and the Albert-Bernard Shaw Collection. A consortium with Trinity Repertory Company and a developing collaboration with Rhode Island School of Design make the Brown environment alive with opportunities in the performing arts. The interdisciplinary field of performance studies similarly takes advantage of a diversity of programs and resources both on campus and in greater Providence. A dynamic theatre season at Brown and a slate of courses with significant strength in theatre history, performance theory, cultural studies, and world performance allow a student to determine the right mix of theatre studies and performance studies for his or her particular project.
Advising faculty, in consideration of a student’s strengths, needs, and specific areas of interest, work with each student to determine a student’s course of study. The graduate program is highly selective and that means that the ratio of graduate student to faculty favors student access to faculty – a strength that cannot be underestimated.
The Ph.D. program offer a broad-based intellectual, critical, and aesthetic foundation along with opportunities for frequent collaboration among scholars, actors, directors, playwrights, designers, and performance and new media artists -- in the classroom and in production. Graduate students may serve as dramaturgs and literary-historical-performance theory resource people on faculty and M.F.A. creative projects, or graduate students may create such projects themselves. One of the things that makes Brown’s graduate program unique is the close collaboration with the M.F.A. programs in directing and acting through the Brown/Trinity Consortium as well as close collaboration with the Brown M.F.A. playwriting program, the premier program in the country. The intersection of these programs means that creativity and scholarship are never far apart – indeed the faculty in each of these programs are dedicated to a rigorous exploration of the intersections between history, theory, practice, and artist-scholarship. The Speech and Anthropology wings of the venture further contribute to broader cultural and critical concerns. The confluence of a variety of approaches assures an atmosphere of debate, discovery, and overall rigor.
The program offers opportunities for pedagogical development as well. Doctoral students may lecture in theatre history and theory in M.F.A. acting and directing courses as well as assume undergraduate teaching or other duties within the Department. Some opportunities include teaching assistantships in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies departmental courses, or the teaching of courses in a student’s area of specialty. Of course, a Brown graduate student need not teach every semester, and Brown does not take advantage of graduate students by relying on them as teachers. Brown protects its stellar undergraduate reputation by insuring that undergraduate education remain an extremely high priority and therefore, unlike other schools, Brown does not indiscriminately take advantage of graduate students in the classroom. This results in a win-win situation for grads and undergrads alike. Though a grad student is not overburdened with teaching, the Department requires that each student gain experience in pedagogy. Brown’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning (http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Sheridan_Center/) offers many opportunities for Graduate advancement in pedagogy, as do teaching opportunities within the Theatre Arts and Performance Studies Department itself. Specific teaching assistantships will be determined in consultation with a student’s committee.
The graduate field of Theatre and Performance Studies includes faculty members from Theatre Arts and Performance Studies as well as Field Faculty from Anthropology, Africana Studies, Music, English, Literary Arts, Comparative Literature, Italian, Classics, and Modern Culture and Media. Indeed, and in some distinction to other programs, students are encouraged to take advantage of courses across the university, meaning that the diversity of opportunities at Brown can be folded into a program of study. The number of doctoral candidates in Theatre and Performance Studies on the Brown campus will range between ten and sixteen at any given time. Graduate seminars are small and there is ample opportunity, in and out of classes, for exchange among graduate students and faculty.