Theatre:
Crossroads of the Humanities

In early April, 2008, Northwestern University's Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama (IPTD) hosted the the second conference in a series addressing methodological challenges of interdisciplinary theatre scholarship. We discussed innovative interdisciplinary work in-progress and encouraged discussion that probes the relationship between theatre, dance, performance studies, and other disciplines. In particular we asked:

• Where does our research place theatre, dance, or performance studies on a map of the Humanities?
• Do interdisciplinary projects affect established disciplines?
• How does the practice of theatre, dance, or performance provide for interdisciplinary scholarship?
• How does interdisciplinary scholarship reconfigure the places of theatre events and theatre events as places?

The conference began with a day of workshops lead by Marvin Carlson, Baz Kershaw, and Rebecca Schneider in collaboration with doctoral students nominated to attend the conference with them. The following two days featured talks by national and international leaders in interdisciplinary research, including Kate Bosher, Marvin Carlson, Tracy C. Davis, Nadine George-Graves, Baz Kershaw, Deborah Paredez, Daniel O’Quinn, Alice Rayner, Rebecca Schneider, Bruce Smith, and Will West.

And in a unique format, our doctoral students responded to each talk , followed by remarks by scholars from throughout Northwestern’s celebrated humanities departments.

A program of the conference is available for download here.