Angela Ahlgren is Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater History, Criticism, and Dramaturgy in the School of Dance, Film, and Theater at Ohio University. Her book manuscript, Drumming Asian America: Taiko, Performance, and Cultural Politics, is a critical study of how taiko enacts cultural politics on and off stage in Asian American communities throughout North America. Her writing has been published in the Journal of Dramatic Theory, and will appear in the forthcoming anthology Meanings and Makings of Queer Dance (Oxford University Press). Her research interests include Asian American performance; queer and feminist performance; orientalism, whiteness and critical race theory; and the intersections of theater, dance, and musical forms. Angela has performed with the Minneapolis-based taiko group, Mu Daiko, and staged managed for the Asian American theater company, Theater Mu. She earned a Ph.D. in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Minnesota.
Sponsored by the Performance/Politics Working Group.