At Georgia Tech

LCC 2600: Introduction to Performance Studies

The goal of this course is to introduce you to the new field of Performance Studies. We will begin by looking at some of the basic features of the traditional performing arts (text, performer, audience) and examine how Performance Studies construes and extends those concepts. In the second part of the course, we will consider the expansion of the concept of performance to everyday life and identify categories (gender, race, class, sexuality). In the final section of the course, we will look at five major genres of cultural performance: play, ritual, ceremony, social drama, and carnival. Throughout the course, the emphasis will be on mastering concepts and definitions basic to Performance Studies and applying them analytically.

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LCC 3262: Performance Studies: Music as Performancs

Traditionally, the study of music has focused on texts (scores, piece) and relegated performance to a secondary position at best. Theatre and performance studies focus on performance but have generally neglected the study of music. This course is an attempt to bridge that gap by exploring approaches to analyzing music as performance using methods and insights drawn from performanc estudies, musicology, sociology, geography, and cultural studies. We will focus primarily on rock and popular music, with some consideration of the performance of classical music

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LCC 3362: Science, Technology, and Performance

Examines contemporary theories of performance in relation to the production of scientific knowledge and technologies of representation.

The course addresses several topics and questions, including:

Historical examples of the performance of science and the differences between the performances of scientific knowledge that take place within the community of scientists and those designed for lay audiences.
• The concept of genre of performance as a means of understanding different modes of the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge.
• The performance of identity in relation to issues in science and technology. How do scientists perform their identities for their various audiences? How does a chemical company perform its identity as a responsible corporate citizen even as it exposes people to potential hazards? How do we perform our identities through the choices we make in our own use and consumption of the products of science and technologies?

The basic intention of the course is to use Performance as a heuristic for thinking about the material practices of Science and Science as a heuristic for thinking about Performance.

At the University of Georgia

Each spring semester since 2006, Prof. Auslander has taught a graduate seminar in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies.

DRAM 8400: Seminar in Dramatic Theory and Criticism

Official catalog description: "Problems in the study of dramatic theory and criticism for stage, cinema, and media."

The specific subject matter has varied with each iteration. In the spring of 2006, the seminar focused on the concept of liveness. In 2007, the topic was Music as Performance. In 2008, the seminar examined the ideas of "performance" and "performativity." The plan for the spring of 2009 is to look at Science as Performance.