Courtney Lau
Lecturer, Theatre History and Theory, School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies
Courtney Lau is a Lecturer in Theatre History and Theory in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. Her academic research focuses on Asian American performance through the frameworks of performance studies, Asian American studies, and queer and feminist theory. Her manuscript in progress, “Face-to-Face: Sensuous Encounters in Asian American Portraiture and Performance” offers an embodied history of Asian American femininity from the late nineteenth century to the present. Her writing is published or forthcoming in Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas, Dance Research Journal, and The Oxford Handbook of Dance Praxis.
Lau holds a PhD from the Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies at Brown University, where she was also a Deans’ Faculty Fellow. With the support of a Fulbright U.S. Postgraduate Student Award, she earned her MA in Dance Studies from the University of Roehampton in London. She received her BA in the History of Art from Haverford College.
In addition to her academic work, Lau is a dance artist, who is actively involved in the Ballroom Scene.
Education/Training:
Ph.D., Brown University
M.A., University of Roehampton, London
B.A., Haverford College
Areas of Specialization / Interest:
Performance studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Asian American Literature and Culture, Queer and Feminist Theory, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
Representative Publications:
“Sickly-Sweet: The Scent of Racialized Sexuality in Arnold Genthe’s Old Chinatown Photographs.” Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, vol. 51, no. 4, (2024): 43-64.
Honors and Awards:
Deans’ Faculty Fellowship, Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, Brown University
Interdisciplinary Opportunities Fellowship at the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, Brown University
Fulbright U.S. Postgraduate Student Award, US-UK Fulbright Commission, University of Roehampton
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Haverford College