Teaching Philosophy
photo taken by a student of me teaching a sci fi theater class in the light lab
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For me, teaching is about two things: providing questions and the tools with which to examine those questions, and providing a space in which students can try, fail, and grow. Using Freirean problem-posing pedagogy, I focus on the issues and questions my students have about their world, and develop tools to help them find their own solutions. I strive to create learning spaces for my students that are equitable, accessible, interdisciplinary, and socially conscious.
Read about some of my past and current course offerings below. Assignment prompts & syllabi available upon request. Read an interview I did about teaching at UMass! |
Theater for Social Change
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From mass incarceration to abortion rights, immigration policy to queer liberation, this course will examine plays that engage with social justice movements. We explore the styles, forms, and aesthetics of the theater in these social movements, as well as what theatrical trends emerged from these moments of social change.
Students engage with the material as critics, dramaturgs, researchers, and makers. Some assignments involve writing formal academic research, while others ask you to connect with the material creatively and personally. |
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Contemporary Repertory: Queer Theater
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This course analyzes texts both from the "canon" of queer theater, as well as experimental and avant-garde queer performances. The course looks to place queer theater within its social context and analyze it alongside broader theatrical trends. As a writing class, students practice dramaturgical research, critical analysis, as well as creative writing to develop their voices and aesthetics as theater-makers.
an example of a final project by Becca Cottrell
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Monsters, Magic, and Outer Space: Contemporary Science Fiction and Fantasy Theater
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Time travel, transformations, and cyborgs. The afterlife. Another life. Another universe. How do we stage plays that move well beyond what is “realistic” and into the impossible? How do we read scripts that are meant to be seen? How do plays based outside of our world speak so clearly to our current issues? This course offers a survey of contemporary science fiction and fantasy plays, as well as tools and techniques to analyze, critique, and stage them. Students will analyze existing works as dramaturgs, creatively adapt scenes from source material, and imagine their own speculative fiction universes.
Listen to the class playlist below. |
Jemma Kepner plays with shadow puppets during the "Monsters" unit
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Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies
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This course is designed to introduce students to issues in feminism through a postcolonial and transnational lens. Students will get an overview of concepts of gender identity, social construction of gender, the relationship between gender and politics and power, and more. Using an applied critical pedagogy approach, students will examine current social issues from various perspectives, analyzing structures of power and oppression, and creating their own next steps.
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Art and the Imagination
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I designed this course as an overview of theatre techniques, careers, and histories. Using a combination of applied projects, exercises, group work, and experiential learning, students have the opportunity to try their hand at acting, design, directing, and more. Crafted for non-majors, I focus on skills and experiences that open the imagination and can be applied to other disciplines.
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"What did we learn in this class?" Responses
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Play Analysis
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As instructor, I took the existing departmental model and integrated my areas of focus. I taught EL Fuchs’ Visit to a Small Planet, Guerrilla Design, Image Tracking, and other analytical techniques and led discussions and applied projects to develop analysis skills for production.
The course covers a broad range of script structures and aesthetics, employing several methods of analysis, including non traditional and non Western methods. |
Various class projects
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Queer Studies and Popular Culture
Part media studies and part queer studies, this class examines the construction of queer images in popular culture. By analyzing the artifacts of pop culture (various media, ceremonies, politics, law, and more) students will discover the tools by which queer identities are shaped and presented to the world. Using these same tools, students will work to create new media and disrupt the production/representation/consumption of media to shift the dominant discourse on queerness.
Queering Performance
In designing this First Year Seminar I created critical and creative exercises to encourage analysis of queer performance, decode images and text, consider the possibility of queering performance. In this course I have combined media and technology with writing and group projects to create an experiential learning process.
Contemporary Playwrights of Color
This course examines the contemporary texts and the social and political contexts of writers of color in the United States. Using dramaturgical analysis combined with critical race theories, this class unpacks the aesthetics, trends, themes, and subjects being tackled by playwrights of color in the current theater landscape.
Other courses led, designed, or assisted:
Theatre History, Devised Theatre, Drama and the Media, Alternative Theaters, Intro to Theater, Adaptation