Admission: Applicants must follow the admission procedures set forth by the Tisch School of the Arts. Applicants are encouraged to contact the department to discuss degree requirements and financial aid and to arrange for class visits. Admission decisions are based on the applicant’s particular qualifications for study in the department, in addition to grades, degrees, and letters of recommendation.

Special attention should be given to the statement of purpose requested on the application form. In preparing this statement, an applicant should include a description of his or her preparation for graduate study in the department as well as a careful projection of research and other professional goals. Students are also requested to submit an example of their writing, preferably an article or essay, as evidence of the research and writing skills necessary for success in the program.

Applicants to the Ph.D. program must have completed or anticipate completion of a recognized master’s degree (M.F.A. not applicable) before being considered for admission. Those who are already in the department’s M.A. program and who wish to continue for the Ph.D. should follow the procedures outlined below under Permission to Proceed to the Ph.D.

Degrees in performance studies are conferred through the Graduate School of Arts and Science (GSAS), although instruction, administration, and financial aid are provided by the Tisch School of the Arts (TSOA). The Tisch School of the Arts Bulletin, application forms, and other information are available from the Office of Graduate Admissions, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, 721 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10003-6807; 212-998-1918. All material—application forms, letters of recommendation, transcripts, and essays—should be sent directly to the TSOA Office of Graduate Admissions.

The deadline for admission is December 15. All application materials should be received by this date.

Advisement: At orientation, students are assigned an adviser based on their areas of interest and meet with this adviser during the registration period each semester to plan their course work and review their progress. Individualized programs of study are encouraged.

DEPARTMENTAL FINANCIAL AID

The Department of Performance Studies makes every effort to help students finance their graduate education. Students are eligible for the following forms of financial aid from the department: graduate assistantships, which carry full tuition remission plus a stipend, in exchange for a work commitment of 20 hours per week; University scholarships, which are awarded as partial tuition remission; and a limited number of named scholarships.

For further information, contact the Office of Graduate Admissions, Tisch School of the Arts at 212-998-1918.

Graduate Assistantships: Some graduate assistantships are federally funded and are available only to U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Need eligibility is determined by federal guidelines. Students are eligible for vacancies on TDR and Women & Performance editorial staffs, positions in the Performance Studies Archive, and as professors’ assistants. The department may also recommend students for positions in other departments, such as the Tisch School of the Arts Department of Drama, Undergraduate.

Application: Performance studies applicants are required to submit two forms to complete their financial aid application: (1) the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and (2) the Tisch School of the Arts graduate financial aid form. Both incoming and continuing students may request the FAFSA from the Office of Financial Aid, New York University, 25 West Fourth Street, New York, NY 10012-1119; 212-998-4444. Alternatively, they may submit the FAFSA electronically (see the Web site at www.nyu.edu/ financial.aid for details). For incoming students, the Tisch School of the Arts graduate financial aid form is included in the program application packet. Continuing students are required to submit a financial aid application, available through the department, each year. New and continuing students should submit these forms by December 15 for consideration for the following academic year.

Resident Assistantships: The Department of Residential Education seeks applicants in January and February of each year for resident assistantships for the following year. Resident assistants live and work in undergraduate and graduate resident hall facilities and develop programs, provide counseling and referral services, and perform administrative tasks. The remuneration for a resident assistant is room and board. Interested students should request applications from the Department of Residential Education, New York University, 75 Third Avenue, Level C2, New York, NY 10003-5582; 212-998-4311.

Graduate Housing: Housing information is outlined in the graduate admission application.

DEPARTMENTAL PUBLICATIONS

TDR: The Journal of Performance Studies is edited by Richard Schechner; associate editor is Mariellen R. Sandford. Most issues are eclectic, dealing with live performance, media, and performance theory. Topics range from experimental performance to ethnographic studies. Articles are published detailing performances in a variety of cultures from all over the world. TDR invites opinions, debates, letters from readers and contributors, and reports on performances, books, conferences, and festivals. About one issue in six is a “theme issue,” devoted to a single topic. In addition to the editor and associate editor, two graduate students work on TDR, one as managing editor.

Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory is a semiannual publication produced independently by students, faculty, alumnae, and alumni of the Department of Performance Studies. It is the first ongoing publication of its kind devoted to a feminist investigation of performance. The journal encourages dialogue among performers, theorists, and spectators by providing a forum for feminist critical theory in theatre, dance, film, video, music, and ritual. It discusses feminist aesthetics and includes performance documentation, articles on women in historical performance, reviews, scripts, and resource listings. Students on staff work in various phases of production, including writing, copyediting, proofreading, layout, paste-up, advertising, circulation, and distribution.

CURRICULUM

To make performance a primary concern is to blur radically the boundaries of disciplines, to subvert the hierarchies and exclusions of the canon, and to examine cultures for the diversity of performance modes and concepts. As a discipline of “inclusions,” performance studies provides an integrating, comparative perspective on the entire continuum of human action from “life events,” sports, public ceremonies, and ritual to aesthetic theatre and dance.

Courses in theory and methodology, while developing a distinctive body of concepts and approaches, explore theories of performance indigenous to Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and other parts of the world and draw from various disciplines—anthropology, sociology, history, literary theory, semiotics, feminist and queer theory, Marxism, psychoanalysis, the study of colonial discourse, movement analysis, aesthetics, and theatrical theory.

Although well established as a discipline, the study of Western theatre has tended to emphasize a historical approach to a canon of dramatic literature. In contrast, the performance studies curriculum focuses on extraliterary or nonliterary aspects of performance.

In keeping with the integrated perspective on performance, courses deal with dance not only as a performing art in its own right but also as a vital constituent of theatre, ritual, and social life. Courses train students to identify the basic components of movement; to see, discriminate, and describe movement behavior in all its forms and contexts; and to apply knowledge of movement style to studies of dance and culture. Dance history is studied as an aspect of cultural history and in relation to the other arts.

Folk performance and popular entertainment (including the modern media) have constituted a culturally and artistically vital alternative theatre and important influence on contemporary performance. The forms of popular entertainment, their internal logic and aesthetics, are studied in relation to their historical formation and cultural setting. The study of folk performance focuses on how people in their everyday lives shape deeply felt values into meaningful form—for example, conversational humor and storytelling, improvised play and traditional games, competitive street dance, domestic rituals, and neighborhood and community celebrations. A major concern is the nature of tradition, which is seen as a process rooted in social life as well as in time and space.

Courses in performance studies are also developed in order to explore the political and ideological implications of performance. Postcolonial, feminist, and queer theory are employed as frames to investigate how artistic forms subvert and uphold particular ideological forms.

While performance studies is not a studio-based program, students are encouraged to take at least one course (but not more than three) in performance practice. Each semester, courses in performance composition and movement are offered.

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