Research

UMD's ADA coordinator Emily Singer Lucio interviews Jill Bradbury, director of the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies in the second episode of the 2024 season of the Disability Awareness Month podcast! Originally recorded October 2024.

Transcript available at https://go.umd.edu/adapod10transcript.

Listen to Jill Bradbury on Disability Awareness Month 2024

Associate Professor Crystal Davis received the Outstanding Leadership in Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award 2023 from the National Dance Education Organization. 

Associate Professor Crystal U. Davis was nominated by Dean Stephanie Shonekan for a 7-month collaborative program out of the Vice President for Research, Gregory F. Ball, designed to equip research leaders at UMD with the skills and resources needed to communicate about my research findings and expertise to general audiences and key stakeholders. 

Employing social science research, this book details how bias affects the brain, perception and decision-making, identifying how these factors manifest in the field of dance. Centering the author’s experience as a researcher, educator and lifelong dancer, it applies social psychology to the events, communities, and teaching strategies in dance classrooms of all sizes and age ranges.

Using critical theory as a framework, chapters define implicit biases and explore the power dynamics that shape interactions on and off the dance floor. Various examples of bias in dance education are examined in detail, as are the ramifications of prejudice and inequity. Finally, the book disseminates the mechanisms that both exacerbate and disrupt the effects of biases, ultimately exploring practiced solutions for addressing bias in the dance classroom. Unique in its narrow focus, this book inspires dance students, teachers, education administrators and arts stakeholders to begin new conversations that will allow dance classrooms to become more welcoming, inclusive spaces.

Associate Professor Crystal Davis was selected for the first cohort of "Breaking the M.O.L.D." Initiative at UMD supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The cohort worked with Psyche Williams-Forson, professor and chair of American studies, Bonnie Thornton Dill, professor in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; former dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, faculty leaders-in-residence Marisa Parham and Ruth Enid Zambrana, Distinguished University Professor in The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. 

The projection designer Jared Mezzocchi has become a go-to guy for ambitious virtual productions. Next up: Starring in his own haunted house play.

The projection designer Jared Mezzocchi has become a go-to guy for ambitious virtual productions. Next up: Starring in his own haunted house play.

History and theory faculty Caitlin Marshall co-edited a special issue for the journal Performance Matters entitled "Sound Acts." The issue explores the resonances of sound in the field of performance studies, asking "how the materiality of sound acts as a form of aesthetic and political possibility."

Imagine a future where theatre can show the world how the internet is a living, breathing, site-specific treasure trove of real-time performance.th

PhD student Jordan Ealey was selected to be a 2021 National Humanities Without Walls Predoctoral Fellow.