Graduate Students

CREATIVE WORK

Scholarship remains the focus of every graduate student’s career at UCSB, however several opportunities for creative work exist to supplement the academic program.

Mind Readers
Mind Readers is an initiative dedicated to organizing creative readings of old and new plays. We combine the talents of UCSB Theater and Dance graduate directors and BA student actors with the engaging material being taught in Theater Studies courses. Mind Readers strives to integrate theoretical and scholastic work with the joy of creating and performing. We bring research to life! (Mindreader's 2015 production of Eugene O'Neill's play Exorcism pictured left)

Graduate Directed One Acts
Offered as a one-quarter course each year, the One Acts provide an opportunity for Graduate Students to develop or advance their directorial skill under the mentorship of a professional director.

• Manifestations (May 2025): Co-organized by Vannessa Cepeda-Rivera, Trevor Silverstein, and Afreen Sen Chatterji.

Assistant Directing and Dramatrugy on the Mainstage
Graduate students regularly work as Assistant Directors and Dramaturgs for Mainstage productions

Directing for Various Performances 

• Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez directed by Mayra Gomez-Labrada (also earned an award from the Santa Barbara Independent for this production)
• No Exit by Jean-Paul Sarte directed by Mayra Gomez-Labrada

Other Creative Works

• Sara Sotelo and Mayra Gomez-Labrada created Teatro Caló. Which is now in its third year of producing community engaged performances for the Latino community and greater population of Santa Barbara County. We produce work in an effort to remember and educate audiences about Chicano/Latino identities and histories. (Instagram: @teatrocaloucsb)

PUBLICATIONS

Recent publications by current and former Graduate Students:

• Anderson, Kane. "Secret Identity Crisis: Gender Studies and Queer Studies Approaches to Graphic Literature” in The Routledge Handbook to the Secret Origin of Comics Studies, eds. Matthew J. Smith and Randy Duncan,  forthcoming (2016)

• Boulos, Dan. “‘Anna Christie,’ Chris Christophersen, and dat ole davil Broadway,” Eugene O’Neill Review Vol.36 No. 2 (2015)

• Claveria, Alesha. "The Great God Pan/Brown: Shared Origins and Theme of A Victorian Horror Classic and Eugene O’Neill’s Masked Play." Eugene O'Neill Review Vol. 36 No. 2 (2015). Project MUSE. Web. 27 Aug. 2016. https://muse.jhu.edu/

• Heller, Meredith. “Gender-Bending in El Teatro Campesino (1968–1980): A Mestiza Epistemology of Performance” Gender & History Vol. 24, No. 03 (2012)

• Jahanmir, Yasmine. “Picture perfect: nostalgic femininity and temporal disruptions in the Aqualillies’ water ballets” Women and Performance Vol. 25 No. 2 (2015)

• Johnson, Kellyn. "Undermining Identities in Johnny Blazes' Check One Please: The Ambiguous Body as Feminist Performance Tool" Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies Vol. 36, No. 2 , (2015)

• Price, Zachary. “The Odyssey Project: A Martial Arts Journey Toward Recovery and Liberation.” Theatre Topics Vol. 24, No. 1 (2014)

• Speer, Annika. "The Feminist Potential of Docudrama: Destabilizing the Primacy of Primary Sources through Paula Kamen’s Jane" Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies  Vol. 34 No. 3 (2013)

• Yoo, Eunwoo. “Henry Stubbe, The Indian Nectar (1662).” Modern English translation and critical introduction, in Early Modern English Foodways: A Critical Sourcebook, ed. David B. Goldstein and Victoria Yeoman. Routledge, forthcoming 2026.

• Yoo, Eunwoo. “‘Edifying Punch and Brandy’: Performing Food and Digesting Identity in Early Modern English Encounters.” In Performing the Edible: Sustenance, Sensation, and Sustainability edited by Kristin Hunt. Routledge, forthcoming Dec 2025.

• Yoo, Eunwoo. Haeri, Q-mars, Marjan Moosavi, Gustavo Prado Sampaio, Zerihun Birehanu Sira, Marcos Davi Silva Steuernagel, Rini Tarafder, and Eunwoo Yoo. “Internationalizing ATHE: A Roundtable Discussion.” Theatre Topics, Volume 34, Number 1, March 2024, pp. 73-82.

• Chatterji, Afreen Sen. “Hamlet in Kashmir, Hamlet as Kashmir: The Politics of Place in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider (2014)”  in Shakespearean International Yearbook: Reparative Shakespeare, edited by Alexa Alice Joubin and Natalia Khomenko (Routledge: 2025), 59-75.

• Chatterji, Afreen Sen. “Uday Shankar and the Textures of Intercultural Exchange” in Border Crossings: Exile and American Modern Dance (1900-1955), edited by Ninotchka D. Bennahum and Rena M. Heinrich (NYPL/UCSB: 2023), 90-99.

• Pennington, Heath. (2024). “Consent Work in Intimacy Coordination and Adult Content Creation.” Porn Studies, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2024.2421791

• The Steve and Barbara Mendell Graduate Fellowship in Cultural Literacy
• Helen Krich Chinoy Dissertation Research Fellowship
• The Thomas Marshall Graduate Award
• The AAUW Dissertation Fellowship
• CLIR/Library of Congress Mellon Fellowship

• Greyjoy, Cate: “Erasing Excellence: Resituating Catherine Littlefield’s Archival Absence to Reveal Feminism in the Formation of American Ballet Modernism,” Conference Paper Presentation: CORPS de Ballet International, Salt Lake City, Utah (June 2025)
• Greyjoy, Cate: “Ladies First: Catherine Littlefield’s 1937 European Tour as Harbinger of Neoclassical American Ballet” Paper Presentation: Graduate Student Recruitment Conference, University of California, Santa Barbara (February 2025)

AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS

• Chatterji, Afreen Sen. Graduate Division Dissertation Fellowship (Winter 2026)

• Zhao, DingDing. UC Chancellor's Fellowship (Fall 2025) 

• Schiff, Sydney. Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship (Fall 2024)

• Greyjoy, Cate. Regents Fellowship (Fall 2023) 

• Cepeda-Rivera, Vanessa. UC Chancellor's Fellowship (Fall 2023) 

• Avelar, Kiri. UC Chancellor's Fellowship (Fall 2022) 

• James Al-Shamma, Assistant Professor of Theatre, Belmont University
• Kane Anderson, Visiting Murphy Fellow in Language and Literature in Theatre Arts and Dance, Hendrix College
• Judy Bauerlein, Associate Professor of Theatre, California State University, San Marcos
• Rose Elfman, Editor and Publications Manager, The Center for Black Studies Research, University of California--Santa Barbara
• Andrew Gibb, Assistant Professor of Theatre History, Theory, and Criticism in the Department of Theatre and Dance, Texas Tech University
• Meredith Heller, Lecturer in Women’s and Gender Studies, Northern Arizona University
• Andrew Henkes, Assistant Director of Admissions, MBA & Dual Degree Programs, Drucker School of Management
• Kellyn Johnson, Coordinator for Student and Cultural Engagement, Arizona State University
• Jan Lewis, Associate Professor of Theatre, Wesleyan College
• Jason Narvy, Associate Professor of Theatre, Concordia University Chicago
• Annika Speer, Lecturer in Theater and Public Speaking, University of California- Riverside
• Anne Garcia Romero, Thomas J. and Robert T. Rolfs Assistant Professor of Film, Television, and Theatre, University of Notre Dame
• Jason Davids Scott, Assistant Professor in Theatre, Arizona State University
• Marc Shaw, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts, Hartwick College
• Beth Wynstra, Assistant Professor of English, Babson College
• Edward Ziter, Associate Professor of Drama, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU