About

The School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) at the University of Maryland (UMD) offers undergraduate and graduate programs that rank among the top in the country. TDPS provides a rich performing arts learning environment, noted for its excellent preparation of students for the professional world that they will encounter. As an academic unit within the College of Arts & Humanities, we provide a comprehensive liberal arts education that takes advantage of the outstanding resources of a public research university. TDPS encourages the development of inclusive and diverse cultural perspectives. Students develop fundamental life skills—such as artistic leadership, cultural intelligence, intellectual curiosity, creative thinking, problem solving and embodied learning—that are actively applied to real world challenges. With these skills, alumni are mentored into a variety of career pathways both within and outside of theater and dance professions, working as arts managers, choreographers, directors, performers, designers, lawyers, business entrepreneurs, professors, published authors, teachers and producers. The school serves locally and nationally as a model for collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The educational offerings in TDPS are administered by 16 tenured or tenure-track faculty; numerous adjunct faculty, international guest artists, visiting scholars; 6 administrative staff; and 56 graduate associates. We currently serve about 150 undergraduates in the B.A. Theatre program, about 60 undergraduates in the B.A. Dance program, 27 graduate students in the M.F.A. Design program, 9 graduate students in the M.F.A. Dance program, and 21 graduate students in the M.A./Ph.D. Theatre and Performance Studies program. Visiting artists and scholars regularly enhance these programs and provide additional perspectives that enhance the student experience.

The laboratory of our professional-level Main Stage and Experimental Performance Series productions focus on developing the full human artistic experience and making a social impact. We cultivate faculty and student collaboration, discovery, creation and performance of exciting new artistic work and scholarly research. We are home to the Maya Brin Institute for New Performance, which advances our role as innovators in design and performance, and prepares graduates to launch careers in emerging media formats, such as webcasts, immersive design technology and virtual reality performance. TDPS also hosts the International Program for Creative Collaboration & Research (IPCCR), providing global classrooms for students and faculty to engage in artistic and academic collaborations across the world.

We are committed to a classroom and school that respects embodied differences and counters legacies of white supremacy. It is only with accountability and ongoing reflection through critical, creative and collaborative work that rich and productive learning experiences can emerge. We write this in full awareness that the land that we work on and occupy is the unceded territory of the Piscataway and Nacotchtank people and that there is still so much work to be done on behalf of and for indigenous peoples outside of land acknowledgement.

Also, the land the university currently sits on was, prior to its establishment as Maryland Agricultural College (the forerunner of UMD), several plantations that were cultivated by enslaved persons. As former UMD Professor Ira Berlin writes of the relationship between UMD and slavery in “Knowing Our History: Slavery and the University of Maryland:" “If [en]slave[d persons] didn’t lay the bricks, they made the bricks. If they didn’t make the bricks, they drove the wagon that brought the bricks. If they didn’t drive the wagon, they built the wagon wheels.” The 1856 project at the University of Maryland looks to provide a narrative of the University of Maryland's history that embraces its past, stands firm in the challenges and achievements of its present, and lays the groundwork for a liberated future. The School for Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies joins in this project.

We align our commitment to dismantling white supremacy with anti-racist work which strives towards the material conditions of equity, and anti-colonial work which calls into question colonialist thinking and structures that uphold white supremacy and allow it to dominate all forms of knowledge production. We turn to deep listening, engagement, and implementation of practices, behaviors, and protocols that support the belief that “racial groups are equals in their apparent difference” (Kendi 2019) even as they intersect with ethnicity and gender, sexuality, ability (both visible and invisible), life experiences, research interests and interdisciplinary background. We strive to address intersectional oppressions, institutionalize equity, and redress white supremacy’s negative effects on learning so that all students are able to thrive. Each of these elements contributes to a vibrant program and offers us the opportunity to expand our field in new and dynamic ways.

As such, our pedagogical, scholarly, and service practice in Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies must be at the forefront of undoing systems of white supremacy existing within our field. We are not unique in this call to action nor do we claim that we are perfect at the work of dismantling white supremacy. However, we are committed to ongoing growth and implementation no matter how difficult it can be sometimes. Joy Connolly (President, American Council on Learned Societies) recently published an article, “Six Ways to Speed Up Inclusion and Positive Change in Higher Education Culture NOW, ” focusing on structural change at the departmental level to improve the experience of Black people in academia. These kinds of practical and immediate changes are both possible and essential in our School.

It is crucial to dismantle white supremacy in community. Our faculty already work with a wide variety of university centers, including the Latin American Studies Center, the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, the Center for Global Migration Studies, the Center for Research on Latino Educational Success, the Center for East Asian Studies, the Roshan Center for Persian Studies, the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities and the Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity. Members of our faculty will continue to deepen and develop relationships beyond UMD to further realize our ongoing commitment to dismantling white supremacy.

Dismantling white supremacy is a daily practice that requires commitment, dialogue in community and constant self-reflection by all. It is not something that happens quickly or perfectly. The School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies will use its central tenets of research, embodiment, teaching, practice, and repetition not to rehearse or perform attempts to dismantle white supremacy, but rather to instill the values of becoming a community that lives these practices and values in an unceasing and perpetual commitment.

The University of Maryland, College Park, an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action; all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment. The university is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, age, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, creed, marital status, political affiliation, personal appearance or on the basis of rights secured by the First Amendment, in all aspects of employment, educational programs and activities and admissions.