The UCLA Center for Performance Studies (CPS) brings together scholars, faculty, staff, artists, and students from across UCLA and beyond for whom an intellectual and/or artistic focus on the paradigm of performance can be a useful mode of analysis or encounter. Through guest lectures, conferences, performances, and other modes of interaction, CPS has built ties with the departments of Theater, Film, Anthropology, Design, Art History, Musicology, Ethnomusicology, Gender Studies, World Arts and Cultures, English, European Languages and Transcultural Studies, and Comparative Literature. Since its founding in 2005 by Professor Emerita Sue-Ellen Case, CPS has received the support of the Deans of the School of Theater, Film, and Television, the School of Arts and Architecture, the College of the Humanities, and the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and produced events on Global K-Pop, Native American Theatre, performance art in museums, queer expression in Wu Tsaeng's film, and much more.
CPS is currently focused on building connections between the performance-oriented faculty, students, and centers of UCLA and sponsoring a biannual graduate conference organized by UCLA graduate students. By hosting a set of initiatives—professional workshops, publication projects, a writing support group, and student showcases—CPS hopes to support global and comparative approaches to performance studies to envision new horizons for intellectual and artistic work. CPS will engage with an interdisciplinary cohort of faculty, students, and artists to establish new paradigms for performance studies. We welcome inquiries from any UCLA affiliates and community partners interested in participating.
