Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

Strategi Sanggar Mekkas Laras Dalam Pelestarian Musik Karawitan Di Kabupaten Pamekasan, Fai’Atus Sakinah

Journal of Language, Literature, and Arts

This study examines the strategies employed by Mekkas Laras Art Studio to preserve karawitan music in Pamekasan Regency and identifies the challenges and adaptive responses involved. A descriptive qualitative approach was employed, with data collected through interviews, observations, and documentation involving the studio's management, instructors, and participants. Data were analyzed through data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification. The findings reveal three interrelated processes of karawitan preservation: perception, appreciation, and creation. Perception introduces participants to karawitan and facilitates enculturation through direct engagement; appreciation fosters recognition of its cultural values and functions; and creation provides space for innovation and …

D2.09 Cultural Activity: Borges Posthumous Interview, Carlos Uncal, Courtney L. Self, Cristo Leon

10mo Coloquio Internacional de Estudios sobre Juegos de Rol

Descripción del evento: Actividad cultural transdisciplinaria que combina teatro, entrevista performativa e improvisación para presentar un encuentro imaginario con Jorge Luis Borges. La sesión inicia con una conversación guiada sobre literatura fantástica, mitología, filosofía, religión, historia y creación literaria. Posteriormente, el público podrá formular preguntas espontáneas y proponer palabras o frases que servirán como punto de partida para la improvisación de poemas originales. La actividad explora la relación entre interpretación teatral, participación del público, memoria cultural y creación colaborativa.

Event description: This transdisciplinary cultural activity combines theater, performative interviewing, and improvisation to stage an imagined encounter with Jorge Luis Borges. …

Performing Disobedience: Critical Spatial Heritage, Counter-Memory, And The Rewriting Of Medellín’S Public Space, Laura Balán

Interiority

This article examines the radical street performance practice of Bernardo Ángel Saldarriaga in Medellín, Colombia, as a site of political and epistemological transformation. Through ethnographic engagement with Saldarriaga—an ascetic artist who stages trance-based interventions in public space—the study analyses how his performances disrupt dominant narratives of history, identity, and citizenship. Drawing on political ontology, decolonial thought, and critical heritage studies, the article argues that Saldarriaga's work functions as a hybrid forum for negotiating plural knowledges and social imaginaries. His refusal of institutional funding, his embodied critique of state power, and his use of trance and possession rituals generate both affective …

(Un)Easily Writing The Future, Stuart Moulthrop, Judith Pintar, John G. Mcdaid

ELO (un)supervised 2026

General Abstract: This panel brings together three experienced digital writers who have recently begun to explore Language Models and transformers in creative and academic practice.  Each of us will comment on recent experience and projects, reflecting on how these technologies alter the way we think of ourselves as writers and teachers.

[1] Judith Pintar, "The Non-applicability of Wishing due to Lack of Capacity".

Pintar will discuss her experience of facilitating Gemini AI in a Rogerian therapy session with an Eliza bot written in the Inform programming language. The session is occasionally interrupted with a meta-conversation with Gemini regarding its responses. …

“Anything Can Have Life”: An Interview With Everett Quinton About Charles Ludlam’S Ridiculous Puppetry, Jungmin Song, John Bell, Everett Quinton

Ballard Institute Publications

This Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry conversation, via Zoom, with

Everett Quinton, Dr. John Bell, and Dr. Jungmin Song was recorded March 21,

2021, and edited by Tom Tuke and John Bell. Everett Quinton (1952-2023) was an

actor, director, and—after the death of his partner Charles Ludlam (1943-1987)—

the leader of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, the landmark ensemble which

helped define queer theater in the late 20th century. While mostly known for his

acting, playwriting, and directing, Charles Ludlam was also an active puppeteer

and ventriloquist. Many of his puppets are now part of the Ballard Institute and

Museum …

"Then Daddy Began A Story": Storytelling In Tolkien’S Home And Our Own, Josh Renaud

Journal of Tolkien Research

"Then Daddy began a story, and this is what he said." That's how J.R.R. Tolkien began the first manuscript version of "Farmer Giles of Ham," one of a few moments of fatherly storytelling to be found in his fiction. Tolkien is remembered today as a great author and artist, but in his home he was a loving parent who regaled his children with tales — a "story-telling presence," as his daughter Priscilla Tolkien put. In this presentation, I reflect on Tolkien as a "daddy" and oral storyteller, drawing on examples from Tolkien's life and writing. I also consider what storytelling …

Perkembangan Visual Motif Waru Pada Batik Tulis Namiroh Sidoarjo, Muhammad Habib Rafi Asyhari, Sumarwahyudi Sumarwahyudi

Journal of Language, Literature, and Arts

This study aims to examine the visual development of the Waru motif in Batik Tulis Namiroh Sidoarjo over time, identify the factors influencing these changes, and analyze the visual elements of batik that indicate such development. The visual development of the motif was analyzed chronologically based on different time periods by examining changes in form, color, and composition from the perspective of visual aesthetics. This research employed a descriptive qualitative method with an art and cultural approach. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and documentation and analyzed using the stages of data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The findings …

“Retalhos De Mim Costurados Por Nós” (A Patchwork Of Me, Stitched Together By Us), Marjorye Graves

MFA in Dance Theses

This document represents the culmination of my thesis project "Retalhos de Mim Costurados por Nós" (A Patchwork of Me, Stitched Together by Us), a choreographic project integrating scholarly perspectives from Dance and Social Justice, Phenomenology, and Somatics courses. Employing both dance film and solo live performance, the research interrogates the complexities of identity within the overlapping contexts of immigration, domestic violence, and motherhood. Through an embodied praxis, the project addresses the intersection of adversity and resilience, highlighting the transformative potential of community, cultural inheritance, and spirituality in my healing process.

Chi Meta-Project Ecosystem Overview - Spring 2026, David B. Smith

Publications and Research

This paper offers a high-level account of the Center for Holistic Integration’s (CHI) meta-project ecosystem as visualized in the included system map. CHI provides an organizational structure framed around persistent meta-projects that support and extend individual initiatives across curriculum, scholarly and applied research, infrastructure, artistic production, AI development, cultural inquiry, and external partnerships. Rather than presenting the map as a static inventory of projects, the paper examines how its core domains function as living systems through which knowledge, tools, documentation, participants, and collaborations can accumulate over time. It also considers how CHI-mediated connectivity, institutional integration, and external funding allow the …

Spirals Of Light: A Healing Journey Through Somatics, Dance, And Pedagogy, Jessica Batha

MFA in Dance Theses

This thesis investigates dance as an embodied practice of healing, attunement, and belonging through phenomenology, somatics, and environmental engagement. Grounded in Sondra Fraleigh’s eco-phenomenological framework, the research weaves personal narrative, artistic inquiry, and interdisciplinary scholarship to examine how thresholds of birth, injury, and recovery shape sensory orientation across the lifespan. Drawing from lived experiences as a dancer, mother, educator, and researcher, the study explores tone, breath, light, and movement as formative forces in identity and resilience. Central to the inquiry is a knee injury and subsequent surgical recovery, which catalyzed a somatic practice aligned with circadian rhythms, sunrise ritual, and …

Machine (Un/Re) Learning, Jordan Shadley

MFA in Dance Theses

This thesis document is an exploration of the interaction between live performance art and digital content creation such as Generative A.I. In this work, I draw from several courses I completed during my time in Saint Mary’s College of California MFA in Dance and Creative Practice program, including Dance and Social Justice, Phenomenology, Somatic Movement Seminar and Dance and Performance Studies. Each offers a throughline of my scholarly explorations and embodied research into the spheres of adapting and challenging how concert dance spaces respond to digital information and creation. I utilized live movement collaboration and distorted videography through Generative A.I. …

D-Entangled, Macy Yu

MFA in Dance Theses

This thesis investigates the choreographic, somatic, and cultural significance hair holds in dance through identity and belonging. Hair is more than merely a visual or aesthetic marker, it is a lived, identity-bearing, and sensory archive of the body. To say that hair is merely just for aesthetics in lifestyles and in dance is not acknowledging its full impact. Hair functions as both a cultural and sensory archive as well as embodied resistance and a site of identity. I identify as a multi-ethnic woman, dancer, educator, and choreographer. This paper analyzes hair through the examination of four different methodologies including a …

Kinesthesis: A Choreographic Study Of The Somatic Effect Of Fascial Intervention, Mira Larsen

MFA in Dance Theses

This master’s thesis was a choreographic study that experimented with the somatic effects of fascial intervention practices, culminating in a final performance in June of 2026 at the LeFevre Theatre at Saint Mary’s College of California. Each chapter of this document investigates the topic of fascial awareness supported through somatic practice and its effect on creating impactful emotional and physical connections in ballet choreography and pedagogy. This document offers the conceptual framework for the choreographic process of the thesis project, titled Kinesthesis. Through the lenses of phenomenology, somatics, social justice, and performance studies, the research goal involved the utilization of …

Colonization To Commodification To Codification: The Salimpour Method, Suhaila Salimpour

MFA in Dance Theses

This thesis examines how colonization and commodification have shaped the codification of belly dance though the Salimpour Method. Codification here refers to the process of naming, categorizing, and organizing of movement into a teachable system. While codification inevitably transforms tradition, it also serves as a method of preservation. As the inheritor of the Salimpour lineage, I trace how my mother, Jamila Salimpour, first codified belly dance and how I built on her work to create a comprehensive pedagogical system that situates belly dance within artistic and academic contexts. This study argues that the Salimpour Method is a strategy of preserving, …

“A Beautiful Mess: Rebirthing Through Earth, Dance, And The Divine”, Mikayla Douglas

MFA in Dance Theses

A Beautiful Mess: Rebirthing Through Earth, Dance, and the Divine by Mikayla Douglas is a culmination of research, creative practice, and lived experience that was developed during her time at Saint Mary’s College of California in the MFA Dance Program. This thesis investigates the shared dialogue between eco-somatics, eco-phenomenology, motherhood, nature, and the BIPOC birthing body. Through the use of outdoor somatic practices, personal reflection and stories, Mikayla Douglas explores how nature can serve as a site of healing, embodiment, and reclamation for Black and Brown birthing bodies. The research of this thesis work is grounded heavily in both scholarly …

Under Open Skies: Black, Queer, And Ascending, Skyler Zakaar

MFA in Dance Theses

This thesis explores personal healing and community building through dance, rooted in my lived experience as a Black Queer man in America. Stemming from research in Phenomenology, Critical Dance Pedagogy, and Dance & Social Justice, I interrogate the impact of white supremacy and systemic racism both within and beyond the queer community. My choreographic process centers intersectionality and collective agency, seeking to resist the fragmentation of identity and to affirm the wholeness of self. Through performance and comprehensive study, my intentions are to foster empathy, connection, and belonging, while advocating for equity and transformation within dance and broader cultural discourse. …

Fifteen Years Of Open-Access, Feminist Editing And Beyond: Laura L. Runge Transitions From Editor-In-Chief To Co-Director Of Abo Editorial Board As Of Abo Vol. 16, No. 1, Kelly Plante

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

This is an editor's note thanking Laura L. Runge for her more than 15 years service as the founding editor of ABO. The current editors thank Laura for her foundational work and we commit to carry on her editorial vision.

Retrospective: The Burney Centre, Mcgill University, 1945-2024, Peter Sabor

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

The origins of McGill University’s Burney Centre go back to 1945, when Joyce Hemlow was appointed to McGill’s Department of English. After publishing a major biography of Frances Burney in 1958, Hemlow initiated what she termed the Burney Project: a research centre devoted to producing scholarly editions of the journals and letters of Burney and her father, the music historian Charles Burney. The Frances Burney edition was completed, in 25 volumes, in 2019; five volumes of the Charles Burney edition have appeared to date, with a sixth and final volume to follow. Joyce Hemlow was succeeded as Director of the …

A Review Of The South Central Society For Eighteenth-Century Studies (Scsecs) Annual Conference (Pinehurst, Nc 19-21 February 2026), Laura Runge-Gordon

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A conference review for the South-Central Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference held in Pinehurst, North Carolina February 19-21, 2026.  The conference was organized by SCECS President Catherine Parisian and featured the keynote speaker Peter Radford.

A Review Of Willow White's Feminist Comedy: Women Playwrights Of London (University Of Delaware Press, 2024), Mattie Burkert

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

A review of Willow White's Feminist Comedy: Women Playwrights of London by Mattie Burkert.