Ph.D. Program in Theatre and Performance

The Ph.D. Program in Theatre and Performance at Columbia University encourages students to explore the reciprocal relationships between performance and scholarship, criticism and creation, theory and practice in one of the world’s great centers of theatrical performance, New York City. The program is designed at once to provide the opportunity for students to familiarize themselves with the prevailing traditions of Western and non-Western drama, theatre, and performance scholarship, as well as to identify a specific trajectory of individual research. Overseen by an interdepartmental faculty committee–drawn from the Department of English and Comparative Literature, the Theatre Program of the School of the Arts, the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, various language departments, Philosophy, Classics, and the Barnard College Department of Theatre–the program encourages students to pursue interdisciplinary research across the wide spectrum of theatre and performance studies. The relatively small size of the program ensures a close working relationship with supervising faculty; doctoral students in Theatre and Performance often work with doctoral students in other humanities fields, as well as with Theatre Program M.F.A. students in directing, dramaturgy, and playwriting. Doctoral students are admitted with a six-year package of funding, which combines both fellowship and teaching support: students have the opportunity to teach valuable writing courses, courses in their field in the English department, and in the Theatre department as well. Funding for conference and research travel is available, as well as fellowships in both the Teaching Scholars program and the Academic Administration program. Ph.D. students from the program have been appointed to tenure-track positions in a range of fields (English, Theatre, Performance Studies) at Stanford, Princeton, Boston University, Indiana University, King’s College London, The University of Texas at Austin, Skidmore College, the Ohio State University, the University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Michigan, Vassar College, and elsewhere. Several students from the program have also gone on to creative careers in fiction, playwriting, screenwriting, and directing.

Degree Programs: Full-Time: M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.