Director's Message

The Center for World Performance Studies (CWPS) at the International Institute was established to serve the needs of faculty and a student body with an interest in the growing discipline of Performance Studies.

Performance and performance styles are crossing borders and traveling at a rate and with a freedom that is unprecedented in history. From the intensely local to the transnational, performers enact the reality of a changed global situation for the performing arts.

Performers in theatre, film, dance, and music now think of themselves as playing to a much wider audience than was true in any other period. Changing technologies have altered the ways in which performers present themselves to audiences. Changing attitudes of performers as well as those who market performers sometimes result in confusing and ambiguous relationships between all parties. This contemporary and fluid situation is an example of one of the many relevant issues that is addressed by the CWPS.

The CWPS brings together a select number of graduate students with faculty from music, theater, dance, English, anthropology, and political science in a weekly seminar that explores these issues. Students in our Graduate Student Residency Program can earn a certificate in Performance Studies and receive sponsored summer research abroad. The CWPS is advised by a faculty steering committee which meets frequently. The CWPS also has a campus-wide list of faculty affiliates who teach courses related to Performance Studies. The CWPS also offers a year-long Artist/Scholar in Residence Program. Applicants are chosen from artists/scholars from all over the world who excel in performance/research and can teach their art to U-M students.

In sum, the CWPS invites you to take part in the wealth of expressive art and experience that our programs, residencies, and presentations have to offer.  

Glenda Dickerson
CWPS Director

Glenda Dickerson Bio