Research Expertise and Interest

critical race theory, performance theory, American studies, U.S. histories of popular performance, U.S. urban development, globalization studies

Research Description

Shannon Steen writes and teaches about race and performance, primarily in the intersection of the African American and Asian American worlds.  She is the author most recently of Racial Geometries: The Black Atlantic, Asian Pacific, and American Theatre (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010; part of the Studies in International Performance Series), and is co-editor of AfroAsian Encounters: Culture, History, Politics (New York University Press, 2006).  She has published articles in Theater Journal as well as Essays in Theater/Études Théâtrales.  She is currently at work on her new project ReOrientations: California and the Performance of Cultural Location.  Before joining the faculty at Berkeley, she taught for the M.F.A. acting program at A.C.T. in San Francisco, and in the English Department at Northwestern University.